The Rothschild family intends to secure long-term control over its international banking empire by merging its French and UK assets into a single group and creating a new governance structure to prevent a hostile takeover, the Financial Times reported.

The reorganisation will reunite the shareholdings of the French and English sides of the family into a single company, listed in Paris.

The bank has made a series of incremental changes in recent years in an attempt to simplify its structure. But the publication, citing people close to the family, said it now wanted a “big bang” to make its global operations more efficient. The changes will also “significantly enhance” its capital position ahead of the implementation of the stricter Basel III regulatory requirements.

David de Rothschild, who will be chairman of the merged group, said that the changes would “allow the bank to better meet the requirements of globalisation in general and in our competitive environment in particular, while ensuring my family’s control over the long term”.

Mr de Rothschild is the great-great-great-grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the dynasty in Frankfurt, and is also descended from his son Baron James de Rothschild, who established a bank in Paris in 1812.

The British branch of the dynasty traces its roots to 1798, when another of Mayer’s sons, 21-year-old Nathan Mayer Rothschild, arrived in England from Germany to start a textile business. With a Channel blockade making exports difficult, Nathan turned to London’s financial markets to make his fortune.

Non-member

Two years ago Rothschild appointed a non-family member, Nigel Higgins, as chief executive for the first time in its 213-year history.

Higgins will be joint chief executive of the merged entity, alongside Olivier Pécoux, head of Paris Orléans, a listed French group that acts as a holding vehicle for the Rothschild Group.

Paris Orléans, which has a market value of €540 million, will be the vehicle for bringing together the UK and French entities. The family will also implement a limited partnership structure that acts as a safeguard against takeovers, similar to ones used by Hermès, the luxury goods group, and Michelin, the tyremaker.