Jacob Frenkel, the former governor of the central bank of Israel, has been appointed chairman of Merrill Lynch's non-US operations.

Frenkel was named president of Merrill Lynch International, the non-US business unit, in February 2001 and at that time joined the office of the chairman. The position of chairman has remained open since last year when Win Smith, head of the international private clients group and chairman of ML International, resigned from the firm.