BoA continues hiring bonanza

Bank of America (BoA) has hired 14 new staff for its global forex business in London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, snaring a host of top names over a two- to three-month period.

Larry Baum, global head of spot, forward and proprietary trading at BoA in New York, said further appointments could be expected, but could not give figures.

In London, BoA has hired Alan Collins as head of European forex. He joins from multi-bank bond dealing platform MarketAxess, where he was president of European operations. Prior to that, he spent 14 years with JP Morgan Chase, most recently as global head of forex and commodities. Collins will focus on developing the bank’s proprietary forex platform in Europe.

Collins replaces Conor Dufficy, who left in June. After nearly eight years at the bank, Dufficy decided to switch careers and become a barrister.

BoA also confirmed its appointment of Bronia Jenkins in New York as global head of forex options. Jenkins was previously chief operating officer at Volbroker, based in London. Before that, she spent 10 years at Swiss bank UBS Warburg, most recently as global co-head of forex options. She replaces Justin Foley, who transferred to BoA’s global exchange arbitrage group in Chicago last month.

Her appointment is related to a refocus of the bank’s risk management strategy, Baum said. Previously, senior derivatives managers were based in Chicago, Baum added.

Five new forex staff have joined Collins’ team in London. Benedict Floyd was hired as senior trader on the forwards desk, joining from Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), where he was a proprietary trader on the global money markets desk. Peter Little has joined as senior trader on the spot desk. He was previously director for euro/dollar trading, also at CSFB in London. Oliver Brouet and Silvia Biscari join as vice-presidents in corporate forex sales in London. Brouet was previously at JP Morgan Chase, where he was a vice-president in interest rates and forex derivatives sales. Biscari joined from Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, where she was on the corporate forex desk.

Forex strategists Callum Henderson and Monica Fan join the London team as senior emerging market strategist, Europe Middle East and Africa and senior Group of Ten interest rate and currency strategist respectively. Henderson was previously emerging markets forex strategist at Citigroup, and Fan joined from Royal Bank of Canada, where she was head of economics and market strategy for Asia.

Meanwhile, in New York, BoA has made four further appointments. Mark Mullet was hired as a senior options trader from UBS Warburg, where he was a time zone risk manager for North American forex options and a euro/dollar product specialist. Joakim (Joe) Diedrichs becomes head of forwards trading. He joins from JP Morgan Chase, where he was a vice-president and senior trader for North America rates.

In forex sales, the bank confirmed the appointments of Jessica Lupovici, née Berger, as a vice-president in corporate sales, and Leonard Lebov as a vice-president in institutional sales. Lupovici was previously vice-president with the North American corporate forex sales team in the fixed-income currency and commodities division of Goldman Sachs. Lebov was previously with JP Morgan Chase in its credit and rate markets e-commerce group.

The bank also announced two forex appointments in Asia. Yutaka Kawazoe joined as a principal in corporate sales, based in Tokyo. He was previously director and head of trading of the forex division for the Tokyo branch of Barclays Capital. And based in Hong Kong, Jiang Wei joined as vice-president in institutional sales. Wei was previously a senior treasury marketing dealer with Bank Brussels Lambert, in its Hong Kong branch.