Structured moves

ABN Amro's US efforts were turbocharged overnight last month as the firm announced it had hired Incapital's Charlie O'Flaherty and Brian Jones to co-head the New York-based structured products desk. Gijs Sijpersteijn, ABN's executive director in charge of Private Investor Products for the Americas and the UK, was ebullient about the addition, predicting the former Incapital stars would push ABN to the top of the league tables in short order.

O'Flaherty and Jones are arguably the best known marketers of structured products in the US (Incapital was the recipient of Structured Products Distributor of the Year Award, North America in May 2006), having set up structured products desks at Countrywide and Incapital prior to joining ABN Amro.

At Incapital, there is talk that the departure of the two co-heads will lead to a more robust relationship with JP Morgan. JP Morgan continues to increase the volume of business issued for the third-party space.

Meanwhile, structured products executive Chris Warren and financial engineer Jason Hubschman have left the ABN Amro structured products desk for positions at Deutsche Bank. We were unable to determine their mandates at the new firm by press time, but the pair have a reputation for being first to market with new innovations. Earlier this year, Warren developed the US's first free-writing prospectus; Hubschman worked with Karen Fang at AIG Financial Products to issue a first-of-its-kind structured note linked to the Dow Jones AIG Commodities Index.

German investment bank WestLB has appointed Maurice Wren as head of its UK retail bank structured products team. Wren takes over from Patricia Kinsella, who has left WestLB to "pursue other opportunities within investment banking".

Wren joined WestLB earlier this year from Allianz Global Investors where he was sales director. Prior to his six years with Allianz, Wren was investment director at discretionary IFA firm AJ Buckley Asset Management and regional sales manager at Fidelity Investments.

WestLB says the London-based retail structured products team is set to roll out a series of high-income plans.

Lehman Brothers has appointed PeterPaul Pardi as head of distribution Europe, Middle East and Asia for the investment management division. Pardi will be based in London, and is responsible for developing both the institutional and third-party distribution networks of a suite of investment products, which include structured products.

Pardi joins Lehman Brothers from Pimco, where he was an executive vice-president and head of institutional marketing for Europe. From 2002, he was responsible for creating and implementing the mutual fund distribution strategy for Europe. Prior to this, he was the head of the southern European institutional business at Barclays Global Investors.

Solange Rouschop has been appointed by Dutch bank ABN Amro as head of marketing products and sales management for its private banking activities in Asia.

Rouschop joins from ABN Amro Xiangcai Fund Management Company in China, where she was deputy chief executive.

She will be based in Singapore, reporting to Barend Janssens, head of private banking, Asia and Andius Teijgeler, global head of marketing products and sales management.

Prior to working for Xiangcai, Rouschop was head of structured asset management and product development for ABN Amro Asset Management Asia.

US investment bank JP Morgan has implemented several changes to its equity derivatives team.

David Long, who currently manages equity derivatives and cash trading for Asia ex-Japan, will relocate from Hong Kong to New York to manage Americas equity derivatives.

Long will report to David Herzberg, head of global derivatives. In his role Long will oversee flow, convertibles, equities exotics and hybrids, as well as equity retail structured investments. He will also report to Bobby Magee, London-based global head of hybrids and Europe, Middle East and Africa exotics, and Tony Best, London-based global head of retail structured products. According to the bank, equity retail structured investments and the US derivatives platform are among its biggest growth opportunities.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan's head of Asia-Pacific equities, Nick Andrews, has been given an additional role at the firm as head of emerging markets for global equities.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"There is a lot of confusion and inefficiency from all sides (of the Italian market), not just from (regulator) Consob. Loading the investor with pages of disclaimers does not improve their understanding of structured products"
Maurizio Morini, head of exotic products structuring and trading for Banca Akros in Milan