J.P. Morgan has bagged Matt Zames, managing director and co-head of U.S. rates trading at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, to take on a similar role. The move comes amid a reshuffling of the fixed-income hierarchy at J.P. Morgan which has seen several executives depart after the division's trading revenue fell 44% in the third-quarter from a year ago. The showing led Jamie Dimon, chief operating officer, to recently call the results "terrible."
Zames is expected to join J.P. Morgan after the Thanksgiving holiday as managing director and head of liquid markets trading. His oversight includes Treasuries, swaps and options. He will report to Patrik Edsparr, head of trading for the Americas and global proprietary positioning. A call to Edsparr's office was returned by Kristin Lemkau, spokeswoman. She declined comment. Zames, reached at home, also declined comment.
That J.P. Morgan would make a senior hire so late in the year and presumably make Zames whole on the bonus he had accrued through 11 months at CSFB indicates J.P Morgan is serious about making changes--and that it needed to make them quickly, according to outside observers. "It's a late hire, they must have paid up to get him for a couple weeks [of the year]," one remarked. A rough sense of what kind of bonus a person in Zames' role could not be determined.
Zames essentially replaces Tom Connor, head of Treasury trading, and Mark Werner, deputy head, who headed off to Banc of America Securities as head of fixed-income and equity capital markets (BW, 10/25). Other recent departures include Jeremy Barnum, head of North American credit derivatives.
At CSFB, where he spent about three years after joining from Morgan Stanley, Zames reported to Jerry Wood, co-head of fixed income. Wood declined comment.
