Deutsche Bank has just landed a major new risk hire from UBS

Deutsche Bank has hired a French astrophysicist from UBS to lead a risk management function that’s becoming centrally important to investment banks.

Claudia Rola, the former global head of valuation methodologies at UBS in London, has now joined Deutsche Bank as a managing director. Her public profile suggests her job title is global head of valuation models and methodologies.

Model validation and valuation roles have become increasingly prominent in investment banks over the past few years thanks to regulators. After the financial crisis it became apparent that banks were using different methodologies to define their risk exposure.

Regulations like Basel IV have forced consistency in this area by stopping banks using their own risk models for these calculations. The result has been an explosion in demand for quant professionals with model validation skill-sets and movement into this area from technical front office roles like structuring has become more common.

Rola worked at UBS for nearly seven years, having joined from Morgan Stanley where she held various senior risk positions including global head of the equity validation review group. She has also worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Societe Generale.

She has a PhD in Astrophysics from Université Paris Diderot.

Rola's appointment follows the departure of Andrew Lyon, its former head of methodology for its global valuation group, who left for Citigroup in July. He's now global head of valuation methodology at the U.S. bank.

Despite the relative hotness of these skills, UBS has been losing some very senior risk professionals over the course of the past few months. Paul Shotton, deputy head of portfolio risk control and head of group risk methodology at the bank – and the former global head of credit risk management at Lehman Brothers – left to job research and analytics firm CRISIL Global Research & Analytics.

Nikolai Kukharkin, global head of model risk management and control at UBS in New York, has also departed, according to recruiters with knowledge of the move. Kukharkin was with UBS since 2003, having joined from J.P. Morgan’s risk model validation team, where he was a VP. He has yet to land at a new employer.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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