J.P. Morgan has hired Stephen Stonberg, former European head of structured credit derivative products at Deutsche Bank in London. Stonberg, who had recently moved internally to take a senior position marketing fixed income products to Deutsche Bank's private banking clients, resigned last week and is expected to take a global position in repackaging and structuring credit at J.P. Morgan, in London, according to a market official. Stonberg and officials at J.P. Morgan declined all comment.
Market players were stunned that Deutsche Bank would let Stonberg walk away, given his reputation as a young gun whose star was rising at the firm. Stonberg, who is in his early thirties, had some 70 staff globally reporting to him. "He's a stud," one market official commented.
Meanwhile Deutsche Bank has combined various credit structuring groups covering products such as synthetic CDOs, balance sheet CDOs, portfolios of ABS swaps and corporate credit derivatives, into a new entity dubbed structured credit products, co-headed by Paul Czekalowski and Alex Graham, both managing directors. Czekalowski said the move makes sense because of convergence between cash and derivative structured credit products, such as traditional CBOs and synthetic CDOs. He added that the reshuffle was planned prior to Stonberg's internal move. The reshuffle will not affect Deutsche Bank's approximately 70-strong securitization group.
