Bernard Hunter

UBS Global Asset Management

“It was like herding cats,” says Bernard Hunter, global head of credit research at UBS Global Asset Management, “some of the analysts hated it.” He is referring to the arduous task of implementing UBS Global AM’s system of analyst portfolios, in which analysts are compelled to make issuer relative-value recommendations. “There’s no more, ‘we’re overweight every telecom name’,” he says. “Analysts have to make recommendations against other credits.”

It’s not surprising that some analysts were cagey