ABN Amro hires more European bond traders

The Dutch bank has hired Sebastien Goldenberg from Crédit Agicole Indosuez to trade inflation-linked bonds, and Stefan Ericcson, formerly co-head of government bonds at Deutsche Bank, as head of euro government bond trading.

ABN Amro earlier lured Patrick Olsson, Ericcson's colleague at Deutsche Bank, to be deputy to Kim Rosenkilde, global head of government bond trading. Financial News reported the hires from Deutsche Bank on May 5.

Goldenberg's inflation-linked activities will be closely linked with the structured products team, a joint venture that reflects the market-wide integration between cash and derivatives.

Rosenkilde said: "Inflation-linked issuance is on the rise - a lot of governments and quasi-government entities are considering their own variations. We are also seeing rapid growth on the derivatives side, with inflation-linked derivatives, so the cash and swaps teams will be working with each other as they do on the sovereign bonds side."

Government bonds are a crucial part of investment banks' debt-related activities because such highly rated debt makes up a large proportion of fixed income asset portfolios. Sovereign debt is therefore a crucial platform for selling other products. ABN Amro is ranked third by Thomson Financial for all sovereign bonds in euros. There are no league tables for government bond auctions.