Bank of America's global head of G10 FX strategy is leaving for the public sector
If you're a G10 FX strategist, you're probably having a busy time right now. Kamal Sharma, Bank of America's senior G10 FX strategist in London, says he spends his time opining on G10 currencies and talking to hedge funds and the bank's salespeople and traders. As of Saturday night, there's a lot to talk about.
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Sharma's boss, however, will not be doing any talking. Thanos Vamvakidis, Bank of America's London-based global head of G10 FX strategy, wrote yesterday on LinkedIn that he's leaving. After 10 years at BofA, Vamvakidis - who's been a regular on CNN, BBC, CNBC, and Bloomberg -is moving to the public sector.
After taking the summer off, he'll be joining the IMF in September as deputy director in the monetary and capital markets department, responsible for capital markets.
The IMF's monetary and capital markets department is led by Tobias Adrien, a former employee of the Federal Reserve. Adrien says it's tasked with helping countries "build skills and capacity in the financial sector." Its activities in the past year include assisting with macroprudential policy in the Republic of Congo and enhancing central bank operations in Mauritania.
This may not be as exciting as predicting G10 currency movements in the event of a major global war, but Vamvakidis knows what he's getting into. He worked for the IMF previously for 13 years until 2012, when he became the fund's deputy chief economist in the strategy, policy and review department.
Vamvakidis isn't alone in moving to the public sector. Xavier Martini, a former portfolio manager at both Citadel and Millennium is moving to World Bank's multilateral investment guarantee agency (MIGA), where he will run its multi billion dollar investment portfolio as principal investment officer.
Vamvakidis' new job might be less stressful than his old one, unless the predictions of someone like Arun Singhal come to pass. - Singhal, a former Millennium portfolio manager and managing director at Standard Chartered and Nomura in Singapore, suggests the next financial crisis will begin in the G10 and that the IMF may yet be needed by a major economy. If this were the case, Vamvakidis' quiet option would be just the opposite.
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