Adding to the spate of departures at Merrill Lynch, some senior bankers covering healthcare companies are leaving the bank, which was acquired by Bank of America Corp , to join a boutique investment bank in New York, the Wall Street Journal said.

Alan Hartman, head of mergers and acquisitions for the Americas, and two other senior bankers involved in healthcare deals, Richard Girling and Mark Robinson, are joining Centerview Partners, the paper said.

Merrill did not immediately return a phone call seeking confirmation after business hours by Reuters.

Centerview Partners was founded in 2006 and provides financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions, capital allocation and divestitures.

(Reporting by Kavita Chandran in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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