Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein last week put all its cash and derivative interest rate-driven products under one roof in order to be more competitive. The new department combines interest-rate derivatives with government, agency, repo and money market trading, according to Thomas Roeder, global head of interest rates and treasury in Frankfurt.
The reorg is intended to make the bank more efficient, Roeder said, adding that it was not initiated before now because Dresdner was looking for potential merger partners. He argued that under the new structure Dresdner will be able to offer better prices for interest-rate products because it can combine expertise from the cash and derivatives groups. Corporate bonds are not included because they are more dependent on credit issues than interest rates.
DrKW also plans to hire several interest-rate derivatives structurers in New York and Tokyo within the next two months to get a larger share of these markets, Roeder outlined. There will be a corresponding boost to the interest-rate derivatives sales department.
Jens Stehmann, head of government and agency bonds trading, and Bertrand Pinel, head of treasury, are co-global deputy heads of the new department. Roeder was formerly global head of interest-rate derivatives. All three are based in Frankfurt but the departmental changes affect DrKW's global operations. Pinel and Stehmann did not return calls.
