Bank of Ireland Global Markets is preparing to build an institutional sales effort in Greenwich, Conn., for Latin America. The firm hired Flavio Paparella last month from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in New York, as a senior v.p. responsible for Latin American sales. The hire is part of a Bank of Ireland drive to expand its global business.
Paparella is focusing on Mexico, Brazil and Chile, which have the most developed financial institutions, and predominately on foreign exchange and interest rate structured notes and derivatives. Latin American institutional sales is dominated by a handful of major dealers, but Paparella said he does not believe the market is saturated. BoI can win business by keeping products simple and targeting specific investors, he said.
Bank of Ireland already has credit limits established for the venture, and is working on getting International Swaps and Derivatives Association master agreements in place. The Latin American business initially will be hedged from BoI headquarters in Dublin and then from its U.S. offices as it gets underway.
The firm's U.S. office will moving to a new location in Stamford, Conn., in September.
