Morgan Stanley MD switches to buy-side after nearly a year out

Anthony O'Brien, the former co-head of European interest rate strategy at Morgan Stanley, who left the bank last December after it cut 25% of its fixed income headcount, has just resurfaced in a role on the buy-side. 

O'Brien has been out of the market for all of 2016, after leaving his senior role at Morgan Stanley at the end of last year. He's just been hired by First State Investments, as a European rates and currency strategist.

O'Brien's buy-side switch is not unusual among senior research and strategy professionals working in large investment banks. With MiFID II looming in Europe, and buy-side clients likely to be decidedly choosier about what research they consume, asset management firms offer more security for researchers currently. Thomas Moore, who was head of European credit analytics at Morgan Stanley until December last year, joined Invesco Perpetual as a senior analyst in June.

O'Brien led a team of strategists at Morgan Stanley which created investment strategies for European and UK fixed income markets. He worked with many senior clients at Morgan Stanley and covered sovereign bond markers, UK interest rate strategy and interest rate derivatives strategy.

He was promoted to his current role in 2013, following the departure of Laurence Mutkin, who was global head of rates strategy, to BNP Paribas. O'Brien headed up European interest rate strategy alongside Anton Heese, who remains at Morgan Stanley. O'Brien joined Morgan Stanley from Barclays in October 2006.

Many of the senior staff who departed Morgan Stanley as part of its restructuring last year have found new employment - but not always at large banks. Kevin Edwards, an executive director in credit trading, joined SocGen in June. However, Oliver Jerome, a former Morgan Stanley MD and head of FX & emerging markets EMEA, trading, structuring and sales, and Pete Eggleston, the former head of the quant solutions and innovations (QSI) team, founded FX analytics service BestX. Jamie Walton, the former head of FX quants, has started various businesses.

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