BoA supplements global forex team

Bank of America (BoA) has beefed up its foreign exchange capabilities during the past month by making a number of new staff hires.

Tom Murphy joins the bank's New York office from UBS as a directional risk trader reporting to Guy Piserchia, head of trading for cash and emerging markets. He will be joined by Kevin Verardi, who will leave Lehman Brothers to work on the prime brokerage desk headed by Umran Zia.

In London, meanwhile, Mike Holmes joins as a euro options trader from HSBC to trade vanilla and exotic options. He will report to David Hitchens, head of G10 and emerging markets options trading.

Christiane Mandell, head of foreign exchange at BoA, said there would be more selective hiring this year. "After two years of building up the infrastructure of our foreign exchange capabilities, the bank is now looking to build strategically, adding talent where appropriate."

She added that three more hires are due to start this month. This follows BoA's expansion in Asia, with the appointment of Richard Brown as regional head for global treasury services in Hong Kong.