UBS reinforces FICC division

UBS has hired 17 people for its fixed-income, currency and commodities (FICC) division, which has been a main contributor to the bank's losses in recent quarters.

Dimitri Psyllidis has joined as global head of macro in the firm's FICC division, which is structured into three broad business categories: macro, credit and workout. He will have global responsibility for foreign exchange and rates trading.

Previously, Psyllidis was European co-head of FICC and a member of the European executive management committee at Merrill Lynch, where he spent 12 years. He will be based in London and report to Carsten Kengeter and Jeffrey Mayer, global heads of FICC.

The bank's Stamford-based credit division, headed by Sean Dowd, head of US credit trading, was also bolstered with new hires. Anatoly Nakum joined as head of investment-grade trading from Barclays Capital, where he was head of US high-grade and crossover-flow credit trading. He was accompanied by former colleague Nahil Bayrasli, a credit default swap (CDS) trader, who has been appointed to the flow CDS business, and Dan Brereton, who has been appointed head of high-yield trading. Brereton joins from BNP Paribas, where he was head of credit flow trading for the US.

The bank's recently named head of credit, Rajeev Misra, has been named co-head of emerging markets, alongside the existing head, Ritesh Dutta. Jim Lanzilotti has been appointed head of Latin American forex and rates from SAC Capital Advisors, were he was a portfolio manager until December 2008. Meanwhile, Drew Dragoumis will assume the leadership of the firms' Latin American credit and sovereign trading.

Elsewhere, Ashish Vaidya has joined as head of FICC trading in Mumbai from HDFC Bank, where he was head of interest rate trading. In Asia, the firm has hired Andreas Fugman from JP Morgan to the emerging markets structured rates team, as well as Anthony Chuah in emerging markets rates trading from Standard Chartered, where he was a director in the forex business. Daniel Brader has joined from Dresdner Bank to the emerging markets forex options trading team.

Elsewhere in the FICC division, Bobby Gerjarusak has joined the firm as head of FICC structuring for the Asia-Pacific region. He joined from Goldman Sachs, where he head of rates and forex structuring.

The bank also added to its FICC distribution team, appointing Andrew Crowston and Pablo Terpolilli from Goldman Sachs to the leveraged finance sales team in London. In addition, Steve Murphy has joined from Deutsche Bank as head of the UK rates business for real-money clients.

Oliver Chappell has joined from Morgan Stanley, where he was head of German financial institutions, as co-head of FICC for Germany. Mark Fox has transferred from the wealth management division at UBS to head up emerging markets distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

On August 4, UBS announced its third successive quarterly loss, recording a Sfr1.4 billion ($1.32 billion) loss attributable to shareholders for the second quarter. The investment bank recorded a pre-tax loss of Sfr1.85 billion, with Sfr59 million coming from FICC. However, this was reduced from the first-quarter losses of Sfr1.97 billion due to lower losses on risk positions from exited businesses.

The Swiss bank's FICC division underwent a shake-up earlier this year after making a net loss of Sfr20.9 billion for 2008, of which Sfr3.17 billion was contributed by the FICC business. High-profile figures within the business exited the firm, including former global head of credit Chris Ryan, head of commodities Todd Morakis, and co-heads of rates Sascha Prinz and David Sacco.

See also: New global head of credit at UBS
Further shake-ups at UBS investment banking
UBS replaces head of investment banking