Digital asset servicing firm Copper has raided Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) in a bid to set up a prime brokerage business.

The London-based startup has appointed the US bank’s former managing director and head of its head of its EMEA prime platform Michael Roberts to head up the new venture.

He will be joined by two more former BoAML executives, Adam Groom and Paul Barham, along with two further appointments Ben Carr and Ross Budgen.

The team, which reports to Copper’s chief revenue officer Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki, will work on developing the firm’s prime infrastructure, designed to help prime brokers looking to offer crypto trading to their clients.

Roberts said that he had “watched Copper from afar for some news now” and was looking forward to being on board as the firm entered “its next phase of growth”.

He and his former BoAML colleagues are not the first former investment bank executives to be recruited by Copper.

Last month the crypto custodian appointed former Citi executive Sabrina Wilson as its chief operating officer.

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