Another executive departed from Merrill Lynch Chinese business

A chairman of Merrill Lynch's China investment banking business Margaret Ren resigned from her position at Bank of America Merrill Lynch according to the sources familiar with the situation. Since BofA completed its acquisition of Merrill Lynch on January 1 the bank has seen a number of staff resignations on the grounds of the stringent oversight and restrictions on pay and bonuses that came with government help.

Meantime the reasons for Ms. Ren's departure from the investment bank last week were not unveiled. The information on whether she will move to another company was not provided either. Ms. Ren was hired to the Chinese Merrill Lynch investment banking business in February 2007. She left Citigroup Inc., where she was a star China banker, in 2005.

Ms. Ren, the daughter-in-law of former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, departed from Citigroup after the administration of the bank dismissed her in June 2004 from her role as head of China investment banking. At that time the bank alleged she presented false information to the company and regulators, but she was cleared of any wrongdoing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006.