Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has merged its multi-manager team with the long-only manager selection team from Lloyds Banking Group's international wealth division, this publication can confirm.

The combined group, led by SWIP's head of manager selection Mark Harries, will draw on the best of both teams' capabilities across client segments and geographies, a spokesperson told WealthBriefing.

In other recent developments, at the start of November SWIP took on Martyn Gilbey as head of wholesale in London, ahead of the looming Retail Distribution Review implementation date of 31 December.

The week before, it bolstered its US fixed income team with the addition of a trio of investment grade credit analysts to its operations in New York: C Ryan Miller, Justin Ziegler and Martin McCudden. These hires closely followed that of Lynda Shillaw as director of real estate, effective from 1 January.