Banc of America Securities has hired a five-strong group of proprietary risk arbitrage traders from RBC Dominion Securities in New York. The group, headed by Jeremy Frommer, director at RBC, joined BofA earlier this month, according to a spokeswoman for BofA Securities. Frommer referred calls to Van Nguyen, managing director and global head of equity derivatives trading at BofA in New York. Nguyen declined comment.
Two market officials said BofA Securities already had a risk arb group prior to the hire of Frommer's team. It could not be determined by press time how the incumbent team, which includes Carrie Schwarz, would share responsibilities with the five traders from RBC. Schwarz referred calls to Nguyen. The BofA spokeswoman said the existing team was neither being let go nor reassigned.
Other officials noted that RBC Dominion's team has historically performed well in merger arb. However, they note that the slowing pace of mergers means opportunities in risk arb could be thinner on the ground.
RBC has decided to replace the team internally, according to Loren Katzovitz and Mark Standish, managing directors and global co-heads of equity derivatives in New York. They declined further comment.
