JP Morgan Cazenove has lost its first senior banker since the UK joint venture was created last November. Simon Gorringe, a managing director in UK investment banking, has left to join Merrill Lynch in the same role.

Gorringe was one of around 70 JP Morgan bankers in the UK transferred to the joint venture with Cazenove. At the time rival bankers predicted a clash of cultures between the two firms and that staff would leave.