Former Morgan Stanley equity sales trader named MD at Cantor Fitzgerald

A veteran sales trader who was caught in last spring’s trimming of equities staff in New York has popped back up at Cantor Fitzgerald. Brett Smith started earlier this month in New York as a managing director.

Smith was said to be let go in April of last year by Berenberg Capital Markets, which he joined in 2016 after more than a decade at Morgan Stanley. The German bank was one of a few firms to make cuts to its equities staff during the second quarter of 2018. Deutsche Bank did quite a bit of trimming to its New York equities business as part of its global strategy changes. Wells Fargo Securities also parted with some New York-based staff in cash equities and program trading.

The move seems to have worked out fine for Smith, who was an executive director at Morgan Stanley, according to LinkedIn. His arrival as an MD comes two years after Cantor Fitzgerald poached Pascal Bandelier from Barclays to run its global equities trading business. Prior to his run at Barclays, Bandelier was the head of TMT cash equity trading at Morgan Stanley, where he briefly overlapped with Smith, though it’s unclear if they had a previous relationship. Cantor Fitzgerald didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.