Broker dealer BTIG has started a fixed income group and hired recently departed executives from UBS and Citigroup. The firm has hired Jon Bass and John Purcell as co-heads of global fixed income.
Bass resigned as head of the U.S. fixed-income group at UBS last week. He had also served as head of all U.S. fixed-income distribution. He was a managing director of corporate sales at Citigroup before joining UBS.
Purcell was most recently head of global fixed income syndicate and North America capital markets for Citigroup. He served with Solomon Brothers and was a managing director with NatWest Markets.
BTIG said its fixed income group will add a further 60 employees to its 200-person firm and focus on sales and trading of credit products through the entire credit spectrum, including high yield and distressed. It will also create a new team to expand into ABS and MBS trading.
BTIG was founded in 2002 and offers institutional trading, prime brokerage, outsource trading and direct market access. It opened an office in London last December and has offices in 10 U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and overseas in Hong Kong and Sydney.
