Rothschild yesterday enlisted Felix Rohatyn, the veteran US investment banker and former Lazard partner, to reinforce the family-controlled independent investment bank's US and European operations.

The move comes as Lazard is caught up in an internal power struggle over controversial proposals to float the bank. Yet both Baron David de Rothschild, chairman, and Mr Rohatyn said the timing of the US banker's appointment as a non-executive director of Rothschild's main holding company, Rothschilds Continuation Holdings, was "purely coincidental".