JP Morgan has raided HSBC Securities and recruited a total of nine new analysts from other rivals as part of a bid to strengthen its European equity research department and boost its rankings.

The US bank has hired the metals and mining team at HSBC of Jon Bergtheil, Daniel Major and Albert Miassian, who were ranked third in last year's Reuters survey. The team from HSBC is the latest in a steady flow of departures from the firm in the past few weeks. Among those that have left are Mark Brown, the former head of research, who is understood to be returning to ABN Amro, and the respected banking team led by Michael Lever.