The London-based business is understood to have made a number of people redundant while at the same time announcing plans to add five staff by the end of 2014.
A spokesman for the company said it had no comment to make regarding the people leaving, other than the official statement about Elder who had "left as part of the restructuring process to explore new opportunities”.
Established in London in 2011 by Elder and Fred Hervey, the current team of 10 staff will expand to 15 with a brief to service international clients out of London as well as UK clients, the statement said.
The plan going forward is to create a further hub for its international clients, in addition to the subsidiary Berenberg Bank (Schweiz) in Zurich and Geneva.
Berenberg’s international private banking division is led by Peter Raskin, who is also the CEO of Berenberg Bank (Schweiz).
In London, the international clients team is led by Alexis Chardigny, who joined Berenberg in July from Morgan Stanley.
The UK clients team is led by Richard Brass, who joined in 2011 from Schroders Private Banking.
The investments, operations and compliance team is headed up by Fred Hervey, who joined from Barclays Wealth in 2010.
Berenberg has 1,100 employees in 17 offices and assets under management of more than €28bn.
