One of Merrill Lynch’s most senior female investment bankers has quit after seven years as head of mergers and acquisitions for Asia, as the US bank continues to haemorrhage talent following its acquisition by Bank of America in January.

Kalpana Desai was head of M&A at Merrill Lynch for the entire Asia region, including Japan and Australia, and had overseen 382 Asia Pacific deals worth $416bn (€306.6bn) since 2002, according to Dealogic.