Options staff hotly pursued

Currency options traders are finding themselves hotly pursued, as a series of high-profile moves around the world has set off a chain of demand, reports RiskNews’ sister publication, FX Week .

Standard Chartered last week poached Deutsche Bank’s head of foreign exchange options in Asia, Will Shropshire. He replaces Justin Gann, the bank’s options trading head in Singapore, who left in 2003 to set up a hedge fund.

Shropshire joins StanChart in a dual capacity, managing both foreign exchange options trading for Asia and taking on a global role as head of forex investor products. He reports to Richard Leighton, London-based global head of currency options.

In London, Barclays Capital has hired David Cooney and Tim Cartledge from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) to manage global foreign exchange options. When they join – by the end of May – they will report to Richard Gladwin, the bank’s new global head of forex derivatives, who took on the newly created role after options head Despina Pantopoulou retired in April.

And Merrill Lynch, also in London, has recently hired a team of three foreign exchange options dealers from JP Morgan Chase to replace a team that defected to Lehman Brothers last month. Glenn Phillips, Ian Edwards and Nigel Khakoo are set to join Merrill over the next few weeks.

Former Merrill traders Asif Ghiawadwala, Giles Coppell and Andy Price, and Lars Ahlgreen from Credit Agricole Indosuez in London and Fidelis Oruche from AIG in Tokyo, all joined Lehman Brothers on April 13 to deal with Group of Seven forex options in Singapore.

DrKW meanwhile named Rodney Sherrard in London as an internal appointment to manage global forex options, after the departures of Cooney and Cartledge, who co-managed the desk.

These moves have sparked demand as banks seek to replace departed traders. However, foreign exchange trading managers said that with plenty of forex options business about at the moment, as a result of currency volatility, banks will be keen to keep options desks fully staffed.