Elizabeth Corley, head of the non-US retail business at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), is leaving less than a month after the firm lost the head of its UK retail business.

Corley, who is also a published writer of crime fiction, has been with MLIM for over 10 years. She joined Mercury Asset Management, which was acquired by US bank Merrill Lynch in 1997, from Warburg & Co, where she was a director.