MF Global expands fixed-income team

New York-based derivatives broker MF Global has boosted its fixed-income teams in the US and Europe with several new hires, hoping to benefit from the increase of debt issuance in global markets.

According to London-based data provider Dealogic, corporate bond issuance has hit $1.1 trillion so far this year, up 22% from $898.3 billion in the whole of 2007, the highest year of corporate bond issuance on record.

In New York, many of MF Global's new hires came from UBS, which has suffered extensive losses and high-profile staff exits in recent quarters. MacDonald Budd, formerly a managing director of US treasury securities at the Swiss bank, has joined MF Global as head of cash trading. Fellow UBS alumni Mark Gannon, a former bond trader, and Michael Marsallo, a former managing director, have also joined the cash-trading team.

Brett Benza, who was previously a managing director of hedge fund sales at UBS, has been appointed head of interest rate sales. Heather Tarrant and Jim Levenson, a former UBS director and executive director respectively, have teamed up with Benza.

Michael Wieczorek has joined as the head of finance and short-term trading from Nomura Securities, where he was a managing director and head of US dollar funding, repo trading and short-dated interest rates businesses. He is joined by Matthew Troy, who will oversee the securities lending business. Previously, Troy was the director of global debt finance and securities lending at Merrill Lynch.

James McHugh has taken on the role of head of credit trading and sales, joining from RBC Capital Markets, where he was a managing director and head of US investment-grade credit sales. Paul Gallagher, a former colleague of McHugh, has also joined the credit team, as have Scott Princer and Joe Scellato from New York-based investment bank Jefferies & Company. Scellato has been appointed head of corporate bond trading.

Fran LaMantia will run the emerging markets business, having developed and implemented the emerging market fixed-income and trade finance groups as a managing director at Cambridge International Securities, a Westport, Connecticut-based dealer in fixed-income investments for institutional investors. Bartholomew Pan-Kita has also joined the emerging markets team, from Deutsche Bank, where he was a member of the global structuring and portfolio trading team.

In London, Andreas Gianopolis has been appointed head of US treasury trading from Nomura International, where he was a manager of the US treasuries desk. Andrew Sacre has taken on the role of short-end and money-market products trader in the government trading and sales team. Prior to joining MF Global, he was the head of front-office treasury trading at Dresdner Bank. Additionally, Chris Sayers has joined as head of European government bond trading from Atom Capital, where he was an interest rates trader.

David Mudie, who previously worked as a senior vice-president of the prime brokerage division at futures brokerage Newedge in the US, has joined as the head of fixed-income prime brokerage for Europe. Jane Robins has been appointed head of repo sales for the securities finance team. Previously she was head of repo marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UBS. Victoria Foster has joined the team from Morgan Stanley to manage the European stock loan matched book and the client equity financing business.

James-Scott Wong and Christiane Schuster have taken over responsibility for the high-yield and distressed loans desk. Wong joined from Calyon, where he built a crossover and high-yield trading platform. Schuster previously served as managing director and head of European loan sales at Lehman Brothers International Europe, where she was responsible for establishing the loan sales team.

The broker has also created an institutional sales team based in Chicago and New York. Eric Eiers, Darrell McConnell, Mark Psaltis and Kyle Unterseher have joined the team as senior vice-presidents from UBS's exchange-traded derivatives business.

See also: UBS reinforces FICC division
MF Global appoints new chief operating officer