Senior changes are taking places at the management of Sal Oppenheim, the troubled private bank, and Deutsche Bank, the firm’s new owner, as Maurizio Genoni, a member of the management for Switzerland and responsible for building up the private banking in Europe leaves Sal Oppenheim.

Meanwhile, media reports said that Sarasin, the Swiss bank, had emerged as a possible buyer of part of Sal Oppenheim's business.

Together with Mr Genoni, who is to start up his own business, his entire team of nine has left the Swiss arm of the Luxembourg-based bank, accordind to cash.ch, a Swiss financial news website.

According to the publication, Mr Genoni has been with Sal Oppenheim Switzerland for 15 years.

He will be replaced as member of the management by Rolf Aklin, who has been head of private banking Switzerland.

At the same time, Deutsche Bank’s Wilhelm von Haller is to join Sal Oppenheim.

In his new role, Mr von Haller will be positioned just under the top management of the private bank in Luxembourg; WealthBriefing understands that Mr von Haller will be responsible for positioning the bank within the German banking giant.

It is believed that Mr von Haller has already ended his activities at Deutsche Bank and is ready to start at Sal Oppenheim in the very near future. At Deutsche, he was member of the management for corporate clients and the management committee for Germany.

At the end of October this year, Deutsche Bank agreed to purchase Sal Oppenheim for €1 billion ($1.48 billion), after intense media speculations over the size of stake the German bank would be interested in.

Sal Oppenheim last year suffered net losses of €117 million.

Meanwhile, Sarasin, the Swiss bank, has emerged as a potential purchaser of Sal Oppenheim's BHF-Bank private banking unit which is up for sale, German daily Handelsblatt has reported.

Sarasin is "reviewing all opportunities", Eric Sarasin, the Basel-based firm's head of private banking, was quoted as saying.

The latest story underscores how European private banking, along with the sector in other regions, has seen and continues to see considerable merger and acquisition activity as some firms seek to spin off non-core assets to raise cash, while other firms look for bargains in the wake of the credit crunch.

Sarasin is the second wealth manager apart from Liechtenstein-based rival LGT Group to express an interest in acquiring the unit, which has been put up for sale by Deutsche Bank, the report said. Neither Deutsche or BHF commented on the matter.

WealthBriefing was unable to obtain a comment from either institution at the time of publication.

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, is completing its takeover of Sal Oppenheim but wants buyers for the Luxembourg-based firm’s non-core units such as BHF-Bank and Sal Oppenheim's investment banking operations.

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