A selection of fixed income boutiques that may be hiring

Ever since the collapse of Pali Capital, a dark cloud has been hovering over the fixed income boutique brokerage sector. Research last month from Greenwich Associates suggesting that additional small boutique operations could go under, isn't making the view any more cheerful. Nor are exits such as that of Guy Cornelius from Evolution (where he was supposed to be building the fixed income business) to Nomura.

But despite all the gloom, fixed income boutiques are hiring.

Financial News reported this week that two boutiques, Methods Investment & Advisory, and Conduit Capital Partners have hired a combined 15 people this year.

Here, therefore, are a selection of boutiques (Conduit included), which we know or suspect to be hiring in the next six months.

BTIG London

Fixed income broker dealer BTIG has hired at least 75 people since its launch in February 2009, and is still expanding in London.

"We're always interested in employing the right people," says finance director David Richards. "We're particularly interested in salespeople with strong relationships. After the events of the last 12-18 months we're finding that a lot of individuals at bigger houses are frustrated with all the politics at big banks and receptive to working somewhere where they can just get on and do their job!"

Conduit Capital Markets

Conduit may have made eight hires already this year, but that doesn't preclude it from making additional recruits. We understand that it's still looking for a head of fixed income sales, plus two or three other salespeople.

Execution Noble

Back in November, it was predicted that Execution would make an additional 11 fixed income hires in the first quarter. It's not clear whether this was derailed by the merger between Execution and Noble, but we haven't seen much sign of those hires yet.

Exotix

Peter Bartlett, managing director and global head of sales and trading at Exotix, says they're fairly full in fixed income for the moment. But... he does say they're looking for equity analysts to cover the Middle East banking sector.

Matrix Corporate Capital

Jim St. Johnstone, joint head of fixed income at Matrix Corporate Capital, says they will be hiring - soon. They're particularly interested in salespeople who can cover the European high yield market, and structured and vanilla credit products.