Barclays has hired a veteran healthcare specialist from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to cover the sector in the US, as investment banks jostle to win a bigger slice of business from an industry that paid out close to $3 billion in fees in the first three months of the year.

The UK bank has hired Todd Richter, who was most recently a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as vice chairman in healthcare banking, according to a statement.