BNP restructures European credit research

BNP Paribas, the French banking group, has restructured its credit research division after three members were poached by Lehman Brothers in September.

The bank has appointed two new London-based credit research strategists, Mehernosh Engineer and Simon Ballard, as well as a new head of credit portfolio strategy.

Engineer joins from Morgan Stanley where he was a senior vice-president for credit and derivatives strategy for six years. He will be in charge of quantitative analysis, in areas such as total return portfolio construction and portfolio optimisation, at BNP Paribas.

Ballard rejoins BNP Paribas after four years as managing director and international market strategist at Bear Stearns. His remit will include managing the top-down aspects of model portfolio analysis.

As the new head of credit portfolio strategy, Vivek Tawadey has been promoted from a prior role as a senior credit analyst in the auto and industrial sectors. He will report to Rick Deutsch, BNP Paribas’ head of European credit research, and manage the bottom-up aspects of strategy. Both Ballard and Engineer will report to him.

BNP Paribas said the restructuring reflects the new emphasis on bottom-up and quantitative analysis in its research group. It comes after Alan Capper, the former head of credit portfolio strategy, left in September to head Lehman Brothers’ credit strategy team taking two credit analysts, David Brickman and Gregory Venizelos, with him.

BNP Paribas has also merged its high-grade and high-yield teams, with Aizaz Shaikh promoted to director of high yield research, reporting to Deutsch.