Wells Fargo executive vice president for wealth, retirement and brokerage has told Reuters that US brokerages will resemble their private banking peers in Europe within the next five years.

"It’s going to look a lot more like Europe. The lines are blurring between banking, brokerage and wealth," David Carroll said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

The US wirehouse broker model - as demonstrated by such firms as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley's MSSB business - has for a long time been a dominant feature of US wealth management, very different from the private banking model seen in nations such as Switzerland. However, as a result of regulatory pressures and changing economics, the private banking model is seen as gaining traction.

The industry will focus more on courting all of a client's financial business and the brokerages attached to large retail banks will have the biggest advantage in the future, Carroll was quoted as saying.

Carroll said the recruiting wars among the largest brokerages peaked last year, but the San Francisco-based bank continues to add advisors.