First Republic Bank has appointed John Riley, formerly of Royal Bank of Scotland, as its new foreign exchange managing director. Mr Riley will manage the foreign exchange needs of clients in New England and New York and is based in the Bank of America subsidiary’s Boston office.

The San Franciscan bank's foreign exchange team serves asset managers and investment management companies; privately held middle market companies, as well as professional services firms in the legal, accounting and consulting sectors; educational institutions; and other non-profit organisations.

Mr Riley was a senior vice president and corporate risk manager at RBS. Before that, he was a foreign exchange advisor at Key Bank, which owns EverTrust Asset Management.  Earlier in his career, he worked for First Union, Chase Manhattan and Barclays.

Private equity firms Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group and TPG are leading a group of bidders in talks to buy First Republic, Bloomberg reported at the beginning of June.