MTN Leak

Never let it be said that Jean Theulier is a man who stands on ceremony. While most bridegrooms wait until after the wedding to take a holiday with their beloved, the Dresdner man has taken off the week before. Still, Leak sends congratulations and hopes for the best as Jean ties the knot in the Suffolk countryside before heading off to Bora Bora.

Structuring, distributing, trading and, er, lunching. All vital skills for an MTN desk, and, as we’re still in awards mood, Leak feels it’s time we recognised the last of those attributes.

On behalf of all who attended the SNS Bank event last Friday, Leak would like to formally thank Roger Schumann and Rene Genet for kindly arranging such an entertaining and informative day out.

Katherine Mitchell has packed her ski-jacket and moonboots, Amaury Gossé is setting off early to scout out the best party locations, and Richad Soundardjee has already made his excuses: yes, it must be time for the annual SNS Bank shindig in Amsterdam.

The sound of wedding bells is in the air. Half the market seem either to be preparing for their own nuptials, or off to celebrate with friends. Goldman’s Marko Milos is taking the forthcoming wedding of his friend very seriously; to ensure he scrubs up to standard, the once flowing famous locks he sported have been cut. Two years after joining the firm, he almost looks like a Goldman Sachs man.

Dealers were gearing up this week for the annual SNS Bank shindig in Amsterdam, and wondering what to expect as the devious Dutch dropped hints about plans for the event in two weeks’ time.

Domenico Nardelli, the former head of Italy’s foreign borrowing department and now head of SSA origination at Bank of America, is taking responsibility for the MTN product following the departures of Alexis Renard and Bertrand Verlhac and other changes at BofA. Given the number of headhunter calls MTN traders tell us they’ve been taking this week, Leak thinks the change is going to be temporary.

While it’s lazy summer days for most MTN traders, Barclays’ Oliver Johnson is getting down to some serious training. ‘Holly’ is planning on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in July.

A series of large yen placements for financial names during April has propelled Citigroup back towards its customary place at the top of the third-party MTN league table.

Banco Santander’s Giso van Loon must have a smile on his face this week. After all, it’s not every day that you get to hire a former colleague — tempting him away from Goldman Sachs, of all places.

MTN and CP dealers are in holiday mood. Perhaps a little slice of British sun is tempting people to fly to more consistently hot (and sweaty) shores.

MTN dealers were this week ruing the defection of James Hickinbotham from JP Morgan’s swap desk to Royal Bank of Scotland. James was number two on the desk to David King — who is now joint head of MTNs at JP — back in the days when many houses traded the swaps on structured notes externally.