MF Global expanded its fixed-income business and introduced a new institutional sales group.
The firm recently added more than 20 professionals to its fixed-income group in New York and London.
In securitization, Kristi DeBriyn joined the ABS/MBS sales and trading team from Merrill Lynch while Frank Bruzese also joined the ABS/MBS sales and trading team from Banc of America Securities.
Meanwhile, MacDonald Budd joined MF Global as head of cash trading. He was previously managing director of U.S. Treasury securities at UBS.
Mark Gannon and Michael Marsallo also joined the cash trading team from UBS. Rich Bryant is now part of the team as a long bond trader from Citigroup Global Markets.
Brett Benza has joined MF Global as head of interest rate sales. He was previously managing director of hedge fund sales at UBS. Heather Tarrant and Jim Levenson have also joined the interest rate sales team from UBS.
Michael Wieczorek is now the head of finance and short-term trading. Before joining MF Global, Wieczorek was a managing director at Nomura Securities where he headed the U.S. dollar funding, repo trading and short-dated interest rates businesses.
Matthew Troy has also joined the finance and trading team to oversee the securities lending business. Previously, Troy was the director of global debt finance and securities lending at Merrill Lynch.
James McHugh joined as the head of credit tading and sales. He joins MF Global from RBC Capital Markets Corp. where he was managing director and head of U.S. investment grade credit sales.
Paul Gallagher has also joined the credit team from RBC Capital Markets.
Additionally, Scott Princer and Joe Scellato have joined the credit team from Jeffries & Co.
Fran LaMantia has joined the fixed-income team to run the emerging markets business. Previously, he was managing director at Cambridge International Securities where he developed and implemented the emerging market fixed-income and trade finance groups.
Bartholomew Pan-Kita also joined the emerging markets team from Deutsche Bank, where he was a senior member of the global structuring and portfolio trading team.
MF Global has added key talent to its fixed-income team based in London.
It has expanded the government trading and sales team by adding Andrew Sacre, who has joined as a short-end and money market products trader. Before MF Global, Sacre was the head of front-office Treasury trading at Dresdner Bank where he ran the money markets, repo and off-balance sheet products.
Andreas Gianopolis joined as the head of U.S. Treasury trading from Nomura International, where he was manager of the U.S. Treasuries desk. Chris Sayers has joined as head of European government bond trading from Atom Capitol.
David Mudie joined MF Global to be the European head of fixed-income prime brokerage. He is responsible for developing and building the firm’s fixed-income prime brokerage business in Europe. Mudie was previously a senior vice president of the prime brokerage division at Newedge USA.
MF Global has also expanded the securities finance team by adding Jane Robins who has joined as head of repo sales. She previously was head of repo marketing EMEA at UBS.
Additionally, Victoria Foster is now managing the European stock loan matched book and the client equity financing business. Foster was previously from Morgan Stanley International.
James-Scott Wong and Christiane Schuster have joined the fixed-income team in London to head the high yield and distressed loans desk. Wong joins MF Global from Calyon London, where he built the 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.
MF Global also has built a new institutional sales team. Mostly based in Chicago and New York, the team is focused on increasing the existing clients’ business share as well as building the firm’s institutional investor client base.
The institutional sales group includes Eric Eiers, Darrell McConnell, Mark Psaltis and Kyle Unterseher have joined MF Global as senior vice presidents from UBS Securities where they were top producers within the exchange-traded derivatives business unit.
“Growing our fixed income business will create growth and revenue opportunities for MF Global by broadening the depth of our relationships with current clients, as well as expanding the universe of clients we attract,” said Bernard Dan, CEO, MF Global. “As we pursue primary dealer status and debt issuance increases around the world, we have been aggressively expanding our Fixed Income group allowing us to offer our expertise in an even broader range of fixed income markets and regions.”
“As a global firm with operations in 14 countries and memberships on more than 70 exchanges and virtually every major clearing corporation, we’re uniquely positioned to leverage our robust infrastructure to solidify MF Global’s position as a leader in the fixed income space,” said Peter McCarthy, global head of fixed income at MF Global. “These fundamental strengths, combined with our predominantly agency-only business model and commitment to putting our clients’ interests first, have played an integral part in allowing us to build such a strong team and attract some of the industry’s top talent.”
