Banks Add Full Metal Dozen In Commodities Push

Bear Stearns and BNP Paribas have hired staff to their precious metal groups in a bid to take advantage of robust commodities markets.

Bear has hired Robert Cameron as a managing director to head spot trading in New York. He joins from Mitsubishi Metals Trading and has traded metals for more than 15 years. Gary Spencer joins the U.S. investment bank as managing director in charge of options trading. He spent more than 15 years in commodity and foreign exchange option trading at JP Morgan.

The bank also hired Charles Bingham as a managing director for structured products and risk management. He was head of commodities trading at JP Morgan prior to joining Bear Stearns. Edward Bases joins the bank as a managing director to run hedge fund sales. He most recently held a similar position at Deutsche Bank.

The U.S. bank created the team to focus on gold, silver and palladium trading for central banks, mining companies and multinational corporations.

BNP Paribas is also increasing its precious metals group. The bank has hired five senior base and precious metals marketers for its global commodity derivatives group.

The French bank has hired Paul Sharp, Claus Pramer and Jim Gavilan for its commodities desk in New York. They join from Standard Bank where Sharp was a marketer in base metals products. Gavilan worked as a precious metals marketer and Pramer spent four years at Standard in New York as head of origination in the base metals sector.