Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s European head of wealth management, Eva Castillo, will leave the firm at the end of the year.

Castillo, 46, is leaving after 12 years at Merrill Lynch to pursue “other career and personal opportunities,” according to a memo from Sallie Krawcheck, president of global wealth and investment management. The bank is seeking a replacement.

Her departure follows that of Daniel Sontag, who ran Merrill Lynch’s wealth management unit until he was replaced by Krawcheck in August. Robert McCann, who quit as Merrill Lynch’s brokerage head in January, has separately been in talks with UBS AG to become head of its wealth management unit in the Americas, people familiar with the matter said in August.

Castillo worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before moving to Merrill Lynch. She joined the firm as head of equity markets for Spain and Portugal, and has had jobs including running global markets and investment banking in Iberia. She has also served as president of Merrill Lynch for Spain.

A spokeswoman for the bank in London confirmed the memo’s contents today.

Merrill, the world’s biggest broker at the time, agreed in September 2008 to be acquired by Bank of America after more than $50 billion of losses and writedowns tied to the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market. It struck the agreement the same weekend Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy.

Merrill’s operations generated 28 percent of Bank of America’s first-half net income of $7.5 billion, even after the bank posted $27 billion in loan charge-offs and loan-loss reserves, according to company filings. Investment banking and wealth management accounted for about 47 percent of Bank of America’s revenue in the first half.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jacqueline Simmons at jackiem@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 21, 2009 08:49 EDT