Barclays has hired 18 people from Credit Suisse’s prime-brokerage unit as the British bank continues its push to expand in the business. Most of the 18 new hires are located in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter. Roughly half will work in the sales division for Barclays’s prime brokerage. Among the hires was Tom Luglio, previously co-head of prime sales in the Americas for Credit Suisse. He joined as a managing director and will report to David Lohuis, global head of prime financing. John Dlubac, who was previously head of prime derivatives services and prime sales for EMEA at Credit Suisse, also joined as a managing director. He will report to Craig Robertson, who runs U.S. prime derivatives services and quant prime at Barclays. Credit Suisse moved last year to discontinue most prime-brokerage operations after being burned by the Archegos Capital Management scandal.
Bonuses for capital markets bankers are set to tumble by 40% this year as deal activity slumps, while a flurry of salary hikes over the past 12 months will eat into variable pay. Dealmakers raising funds on capital markets likely to see the biggest drop in bonuses this year, according to the latest survey by Johnson Associates, while most business lines are set for a sharp decline compared to 2021, when deal fees surged to a record $130bn. Bankers working on M&A transactions could see drops of up to 20%, the survey predicts. In a reversal of fortunes, traders are expected to receive an increase this year as the Russia-Ukraine conflict has led to a surge in market volatility. Fixed-income traders could receive 20% more, Johnson Associates predicts, while equities trader bonuses are set to rise by 5% to 10%.
Jonathan Moore has left Credit Suisse. Moore had decided to leave of his own volition and he's off to pursue other undefined opportunities. He joined Credit Suisse from William M. Mercer in July 2001. After starting out in credit research, Moore became the head of European credit trading in 2009, the co-head of credit products EMEA in 2009, the sole head in 2017 and the global head in 2020. In this final role, sources say he was running all investment grade credit trading, all high yield credit trading, all structured credit trading and all financing. He is being replaced by Daniel McCarthy, who's been at Credit Suisse since joining from Citigroup in 2007. Unlike Moore, McCarthy has always been based in New York and will remain there: the CS global credit business will now be run out of America. David Jones is being appointed head of credit in EMEA.
Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has hired at least four executives from rivals to bolster its new macro trading unit. Kanzo Nakayama, who worked at Citadel, will join as a money manager for rates trading next year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. George Attokkaran has been hired from ExodusPoint Capital Management as macro risk manager in New York. The firm has also hired Chris Langman, who previously worked at Brevan Howard Asset Management, in London as a macro strategist, while Katie Tester has joined for business development from Eisler Capital, the person added.
RBC will start making markets in credit derivatives and hired Santosh Sateesh to lead the new department. Sateesh joins as a managing director and head of U.S. credit derivative trading, after previously holding a similar role at Credit Suisse. He will report to Mark Maroney, co-head of global spread products, and join RBC in July in New York. RBC will initially make markets in U.S. dollar products. Sateesh will focus on developing trading capabilities across dollar investment-grade and high-yield indexes, index options and growth in some single-name derivatives.
Millennium Management has hired former Bitstamp executive Hunter Merghart to lead its digital asset infrastructure strategy, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Merghart will join Millennium as its chief operating officer of digital assets to build out crypto infrastructure. Merghart was most recently venture partner at crypto fund Castle Island Ventures, a position he had held since June 2021 having previously been head of operations for Bitstamp. He had also spent a year as head of trading for Coinbase.
Jane Street is turning to decentralized finance to borrow crypto. The company is going to initially borrow up to $25 million in USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, with plans to scale up to $50 million. It will borrow from crypto firm BlockTower Capital and will do so through Clearpool, a DeFi marketplace where institutions can get uncollateralized liquidity from a network of lenders. This is the first time Jane Street is using decentralized finance to borrow crypto. “This is the first traditional financial institution on Wall Street that has made this step -- this almost opens the floodgates,” Robert Alcorn, CEO of Clearpool, said. Crypto-focused firms such as Alameda Research already use similar services to borrow or lend capital. This is not the first time Jane Street is showing interest in DeFi. The firm backed Bastion, a lending project, in March. And last year, it began contributing market data to Pyth Network, a provider of verifiable data for DeFi. The company sees crypto trading as a growth area. It’s been executing crypto trades since 2017.
