UBS made senior fixed income hires in New York and London

UBS was one of the banks that performed particularly well in terms of year-on-year growth in fixed income trading revenues in the third quarter. This might explain why the Swiss bank has started 2021 with some major hires.

The new recruits include Eoghan O'Neill, the former head of distressed credit sales at NatWest Markets.  O'Neill spent three years at NatWest after joining from Jefferies in 2017. He arrived at UBS this month as the London-based head of leveraged finance sales. 

UBS also made a significant new fixed income markets recruit in New York in the form of Doug Vissicchio as the head of municipal bond trading.  Vissicchio joined last week; he spent nearly three decades at Citi, where he was latterly co-head of muni-trading.

UBS's enthusiasm for senior recruiting suggests banks might spend 2021 strengthening fixed income sales and trading businesses after last year's growth in revenues. In a note this morning, Deutsche Bank strategy Jim Reid said this year is now starting to look like it won't be a low volume year for markets, with economic growth likely to take off from the second quarter and Democrats adding to stimulus spending. If volumes remain high, this could be another big year for banks' markets revenues - and that could further spur hiring. 

O'Neill isn't alone in finding a new job after leaving NatWest Markets. - Last week we reported that Harsh Shah, the former head of fixed income origination and solutions at NatWest, joined Morgan Stanley. 

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