Woori Investment & Securities is in talks with Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch to buy the U.S. investment bank's South Korean private banking business, a local newspaper reported on Friday. Both Woori and Merrill Lynch declined to comment on the report in the Maeil Business Newspaper. Woori currently employs 40 private bankers and operates a private banking center in Seoul's ritzy Gangnam district, according to a company spokesman. Market estimates cited in the report said it was managing a combined 1 trillion won ($919.5 mln) worth of assets from roughly 700 high net worth individuals. Merrill Lynch's Seoul private banking operation is said to have 10 bankers also overseeing roughly 1 trillion won in total, the report.
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