The head of the Merrill Lynch’s private banking and investment group in Chicago, Michael Madigan, has left the bank. Mr Madigan had been in charge of the group for over a year having replaced Nick McClanahan. He had been at Merrill since 1998 and was previously at Prudential Securities, now part of Wachovia’s retail brokerage unit. Mr Madigan reported to Devon Baranski, who was appointed western managing director in a restructuring at Merrill's private banking unit in the US last November.