Commerzbank cuts in London

Commerzbank has shed four foreign exchange jobs in London, a source at the bank told RiskNews ' sister publication FX Week . Among the departures was Behnouche Mostachfi, a senior FX options trader, the source confirmed. Another un-named options dealer, one FX sales dealer and one spot trader make up the remainder of the job losses.

Although a spokesperson for Commerzbank in London refused to confirm the names or positions of departed staff, he said the bank is in the process of cutting jobs due to a "cost-cutting offensive" at its investment bank, Commerzbank Securities.

The bank announced on November 12 that globally, 300 front-office positions would go in addition to 150 cuts among back-office staff.

The spokesperson could not name the bank’s current trading, options or sales managers for FX.

The cuts follow the departures of several forex staff from the bank in recent months.

Alison Fletcher, head of FX sales in the UK, left Commerzbank in October to join ABN Amro in London. She is due to start at the Dutch bank in January, where she will work in the corporate client risk advisory team.

FX sales dealer Martin Bean left Commerzbank in the same month and has since joined Boston-based bank State Street in London on the real-money FX sales desk.

Commerzbank also lost its global head of FX trading and sales, Edward Voorhees, in April due to differences over business decisions at the bank.

Since then the bank has not named a permanent dedicated FX chief, although Ricardo Pascoe, head of corporate risk structure, is currently responsible for global forex. He did not return calls last week.

The cuts also follow the integration of the bank’s FX group into the securities division, which was completed in September.

The move was designed to bring forex under the same management structure as fixed-income and equities, enabling the bank to offer a wider service to clients, Pascoe said at the time. He added, that although some staff left the bank during the integration, there had not been any job losses resulting from the restructure.

Mostachfi transferred to Commerzbank in London from Tokyo, where he was Asian head of FX options, at the beginning of this year, after Commerzbank shifted its Asian forex trading to Singapore.