UK – David Bilbé, managing director of UK investor services at Brown Brothers Harriman, has joined Thomson Financial as commercial director, Europe - a new role.

Bilbé resigned in July. The departure comes as the US private bank announced last month that it plans to set up a "direct custody facility" in the UK as part of a move to boost its presence in Europe. The new arm is to be headed by BBH European partner Andrew Tucker, who took over in January this year.

Thomson said Bilbé, 48, would report to Donal Smith, chief operating officer, Europe. Bilbé will head European sales and customer support.

Bilbé had been at transactional services provider BBH for 18 months, where he was also responsible for sales management in the UK and Europe.

Thomson’s Smith said: “David has a great reputation for working with customers to achieve demonstrable results in the financial services industry and we're looking forward to his commercial input to help Thomson Financial achieve its goals in Europe."

BBH is one of several custodians rated by R&M Consultants as being in the "second tier" below the very largest operators such State Street, J P Morgan, Bank of New York and Citibank.

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