This one investment bank is still making major hires in London

Even after a couple of decent quarters, few investment banks are pulling the trigger on senior hires. There’s one exception in London, however – Wells Fargo.

The U.S. bank has made another managing director hire for its London investment bank. Steve Hulett, the former co-head of mortgage and asset back securities (ABS) for Europe at Jefferies, has just joined Wells Fargo as a managing director and head of credit and ABS sales for EMEA.

Hulett is the second big sales hire at Wells Fargo in London this month. Daniel Wrobel, the former co-head of distribution at Barclays for Germany and Austria, joined the bank as head of rates for EMEA.

Both recruits look opportunistic. Suffice to say, it’s been a tough time for asset backed securities over the medium term, but issuance increased late last year in the build up to the U.S. presidential elections.

Hulett left Jefferies in July last year as part of a restructuring of its securitisation team. Jefferies made eight big hires in this area in 2009, but by the middle of last year half had left.

Among them was Peter Melichar, who joined Jefferies as head of European collateralized loan obligations (CLO) origination in July 2015. By September 2016, he had left and is now making music. He told us previously that the securitisation market has been in “tatters” since the 2008 financial crisis “despite the community’s attempts to talk up the market”.

Meanwhile, despite the recent uptick in rates revenues at investment banks, sales teams have been in flux. Goldman Sachs’ layoffs last year, for example, targeted senior fixed income sales staff primarily. Wells Fargo’s recruitment of Wrobel is therefore still something of an anomaly.

Still, Wells Fargo is expanding in London. It signed a £300m deal to expand its London office in July last year, giving it enough space to house 2,600 people. Its UK headcount is currently around 850.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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