Merrill Lynch has hired over 20 derivative staffers from JPMorgan, including four managing directors. Antonio Polverino, responsible for cross-asset corporate derivative sales at JPMorgan in London, is joining Merrill as co-head of derivatives marketing for financial institutions and corporates. Patrick Meyer, spokesman for Merrill, confirmed the hire and said the full team will be on board by mid July. Three other JPMorgan managing directors have also jumped to Merrill. Giovanni Moruzzi comes on board as head of FX derivatives sales to banks, Daniele Bartoccioni joins as head of debt and equity derivative sales to Central and Eastern Europe and Gloria Vargas is joining to head debt derivative sales to France, Portugal and Belgium.
About 15 analysts and sales staffers will follow Polverino, who will report in to Dimitrios Psyllidis, head of the debt client group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Polverino will co-head the group with Stefan Guetter, who was managing the group on his own after the departure of previous derivative sales co-head Joachim Willnow, who left for Nomura last year (DW, 5/23).