More than half the board members of Flemings, the UK investment bank acquired by Chase Manhattan Bank, are to leave in the coming weeks.

William Garrett, chief executive of Robert Fleming Holdings, announced his resignation to staff last Thursday. He is joined by Henry Strutt, co-chief executive of investment banking and formerly managing director of Jardine Fleming, finance director Simon Ball and general counsel Geoffrey Howe. All plan to leave the bank over the next few months. The resignations leave only three Flemings board members in place: Lord Renwick, the bank's deputy chairman Bernard Taylor, who had run investment banking alongside Strutt and Paul Bateman, head of asset management.