Iskander to head OTC structuring at Deutsche

Deutsche Bank has hired Michel Iskander to head its over-the-counter derivatives structuring business. He will manage a team of about 10 people in the newly created position. He will report to Toshio Okumura, head of the structured products group, and be based in London.

Iskander, 35, has worked at JP Morgan since 1993, most recently as head of European financial institutions derivatives marketing. Prior to that, he was head of interest rate derivatives marketing to financial institutions in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Deutsche's structured products group, which employs about 55 people, is a structuring body for cross-asset class products including: balance sheet and arbitrage portfolio swaps, asset repackaging, insurance, hybrid products, emerging market structured products, liability management, commodities, funds-of-funds and portfolio transition management.

"[Michel's] appointment reaffirms our commitment to finding innovative solutions to complex client problems," said Michele Faissola, Deutsche’s global head of OTC derivatives.Custom-made structured products are increasingly attractive to investment banks since they generate significantly higher margins than commoditised flow business.