Scandi banks are hiring ex-Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley fixed income professionals
As Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley trim their fixed income units, Scandinavian banks are hiring.
Claus Mikkelsen former head of Dutch & Nordic Macro Sales at Credit Suisse in London, just joined Nordea Markets in Copenhagen as head of flow and rates solutions to institutional clients in Denmark and internationally. Before working for Credit Suisse, Mikkelson spent six years as a director at Barclays and nearly seven years as a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
Vincent Vennberg, a junior fixed income salesman from Morgan Stanley, has also joined a Scandinavian house. Vennberg, who spent two years at Morgan Stanley in London after three years at Deutsche Bank, just arrived on SEB's fixed income sales team in Stockholm.
Although SEB reportedly made some layoffs last year as part of a restructuring programme, one London headhunter says Scandinavian banks are a good bet. "The Scandinavian market has held up well, so there's always demand for good traders and coverage people." Nordea appointed Casper von Koskull, a former Goldman Sachs partner, as overall group CEO last August. Von Koskull joined Nordea in 2010 and spent several years building up the investment bank.
"Thanks to Von Koskull, Nordea now has a much better sales and trading platform," says the headhunter, speaking off the record. "They used to be a bit of a joke, but that's no longer the case."
Plenty of traders are still on the market. The latest name to emerge from Credit Suisse is Eric Miramond, former head of European government bond trading at the bank, who recently left after 23 years.
Other Scandinavian houses also appear to be hiring selectively. Danske Bank just hired Rory Byrne as global head of market operations. Byrne was previously COO of global FX and rates at Sberbank, before which he worked in sales at BAML, Deutsche and Rabobank. Dankse also hired a senior DCM banker from Paribas last November.
Photo credit: Stockholm HDR by Peter Adermark is licensed under CC BY 2.0.