Citigroup Combines Fixed Income Arms

Citigroup has followed the lead of rivals Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch in creating a fixed income, currencies and commodities division within its capital markets business.

The move, spearheaded by Tom Maheras, Citigroup's global head of capital markets, means that emerging-market sales and trading operations are to be folded into the global fixed income business.

Randy Barker and Geoffrey Coley, former co-heads of global fixed income capital markets, will lead the business with Paco Ybarra, who ran the emerging markets sales and trading division.

According to an internal memorandum seen by Financial News, Barker is to have responsibility for credit and securitization while Coley and Ybarra will run interest rates, currencies and commodities. The emerging markets group was a standalone business within Citigroup's capital markets operations, while fixed-income straddled trading and sales in global interest rates, currencies, credit, securitisation, futures and commodities.

A Citigroup spokesman said the restructuring was not expected to result in redundancies and the reshuffle affected only management.

The creation of a FICC business comes almost four months after Merrill Lynch established such a group in a restructuring designed to emulate the success of Goldman Sachs' FICC division, set up in 1997.

Citigroup's realignment, while later than other Wall Street banks, comes as it is pushing harder in high-margin areas of the capital markets financing, such as securitisation and structured credit.