 |
| Kieth Styrcula |
JPMorgan is readying a fund-linked structured products business in the U.S. and has hired Keith Styrcula, a former senior financial structurer at SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York and chairman of the Structured Products Association, as a senior marketer to build the new business. The platform will focus on creating customized structured notes, swaps, options and hybrid products on funds, said Styrcula. The firm's success with fund-linked products in Europe has encouraged it to bring the technology across the Atlantic to the U.S., according to an official.
Fund-linked products has become the latest hot business, with firms including Wachovia Securities prepping their first such deals (DW, 7/30). Nomura International also recently made waves in Europe by poaching a 17-strong team from Merrill Lynch to instigate the business (DW, 7/30). JPMorgan is considered to be a heavyweight entrant to the U.S. market, with observers noting that the firm typically takes a large market share in any derivatives activity it enters.
Styrcula left SG last March, and has spent the past few months working on his third novel, a sequel to The Velocity of Money, which he wrote under his pen name Stephen Rhodes. The Velocity of Money is a financial thriller centering on an in-house investment banking attorney who plots a capital markets meltdown by using the systems of his employer.
Styrcula previously worked at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he created a platform to offer high-net-worth individuals equity and fund-linked structured products through the Private Client Services group. He also spent four years at UBS where he created what is thought to be the first Dow Jones Industrial Average-linked structured product.
