Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Financial has put Nick Stonestreet, formerly a regional private banking head for Merrill Lynch, in charge of the private-banking part of its business services unit.

Mr Stonestreet, who has been been in financial service for more than 20 years, comes to Regions from Jacksonville, Florida-based waste-water treatment company BCR Environmental, where he was president and chief executive.

Before that he was head of Merrill's private banking business in its US southeast region. In his 14 years with Merrill, he held a number of senior positions, including having been CEO of its Swiss private banking subsidiary and head of global trust and wealth structuring. He has also worked at Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks and for Dupont's Brazilian subsidiary as a financial analyst.