Job Wrap: Lehman Leaks Staff, ABN Cuts Researchers

Lehman Brothers lost four staff last week to Lazard, HSBC, and RBS Greenwich Capital.

Lazard hired Jon Biele as managing director with responsibility for equity product origination, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertibles and private investments in public equity.

HSBC Securities hired Arthur Tetyevsky, a number one investment-grade strategist from Lehman, as managing director and chief U.S. credit strategist based in New York.

RBS Greenwich Capital hired Kris Grimm, a credit research analyst covering the auto sector at Lehman, and Glenn Hall, a senior corporate bond salesman.

Separately, it emerged that ABN Amro had laid off 30 staff in U.S. fixed income research. The reductions are part of a program of 100 redundancies in the bank's U.S. institutional business. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have also laid off research staff this year.

HSBC Securities is swimming against the flow of research redundancies. The UK-based bank plans to add 100 researchers in 2005. Last week it hired Alkesh Shah from Morgan Stanley as a managing director responsible for research coverage of the technology sector. Shah will be based in New York.

Structured Products: DrKW and BNP Paribas

If research is in the doldrums, structured products are on cloud nine as banks add staff to exploit high margins. Last week, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein raided Calyon, the corporate and investment banking arm of Crédit Agricole, for three hires to its sales and marketing team in New York. Christopher J. Listo and Morgan Gaughan joined as directors; Stanislas Varin joined as an associate. The three will form a new sales team responsible for derivatives and structured product distribution to U.S. offshore and Latin American clients.

BNP Paribas hired Mike Heraty from Deutsche Bank for its New York equity derivatives division. Heraty joins as director and equity derivatives marketer.

M&A: Greenhill and Wachovia

Greenhill & Co, the boutique investment bank, opened a new office in Dallas and hired Kenneth Crews, a specialist in energy and power mergers, to work there. Crew was previously vice chairman of UBS investment bank.

Wachovia Securities hired three people for its M&A practice. Alan Mitchell joined from Viant Group, an investment banking and asset management firm, as a managing director in the media and communications investment banking practice. Kevin J. Smith joined from JP Morgan Securities in Chicago as a managing director in the industrial growth investment banking practice. J. Stuart White III joined from CIBC World Markets as a managing director in the M&A practice.

Asset Management: Northern Trust and Scudder

Northern Trust hired Daniel Strumphler from ABN Amro as director of institutional sales for Northern Trust Global Investments, the company's asset management arm. At ABN AMRO Strumphler was senior vice president for responsible for sales and marketing of asset management products to corporate clients.

Deutsche Bank appointed Axel Schwarzer as head of Scudder Investments. Schwarzer, a managing director at DWS investments in Frankfurt, will move to New York to take up the new position.

Bank of America: Jobs Boost for Boston

Bank of America said it plans to outsource back office operations for its mutual funds to two firms in Boston. The move is expected to bring new jobs to the area. Boston-based State Street and DST Systems are expected to hire 100 new employees to meet the additional demand.

Separately, Banc of America Securities raided Deutsche Bank for its high yield sales and trading operation. Scott O'Callaghan, managing director and head of high-yield sales at Deutsche, and Joe Faughnan, a high-yield trader, are both understood to be joining.