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Lehman Brothers is believed to be looking to hire a European head of its collateralized debt obligation business. The new recruit is expected to sit in between the European structured credit trading department, headed by Mark Ames, and the European structured finance department, headed by Amany Attia. Ames would not comment on the hire, but said there is a joint venture between the two departments for securitized products. He added that Lehman does not have a European head of CDOs at present. Attia was traveling and could not be reached.

Andy Constan, global head of equity derivatives trading and structuring at Salomon Smith Barney in New York, has been promoted to global head of equity derivatives. He replaces Alan Marks who left the firm to pursue other interests, according to an internal memo disseminated late last month by Arthur Hyde and Robert DiFazio, co-heads of global equities, (for the full text, go to www.derivativesweek.com).

Standard Chartered has added a pair of interest-rate and credit derivatives professionals in Singapore in what is believed to be an on-going effort to spruce up its trading operation.

Standard Chartered Bank broke out the lobster tails and caviar at a recent cocktail party it threw for executive search firms at its Hong Kong office. The bank, which is beefing up its interest-rate derivatives operation in Asia (see story, page 4), wheeled out Peter Wong, chief executive-Hong Kong, to set out its corporate strategy, according to several headhunters who attended. "Very enjoyable," said one, "except no alcohol, which was disappointing." Wong was on vacation and could not be reached. A company spokeswoman declined comment.

The individual roles of Credit Suisse First Boston's equity derivatives department have been finalized following CSFB's recent hire of Steve Kim, global head of equity derivatives research at Merrill Lynch (DW, 7/9). Kim, managing director, is responsible for coordinating the equity derivatives and convertibles unit's research and strategy in North America. Mika Toikka, director, heads global volatility and options strategy. Philipp Kauer, director, has been named head of

Ian Billington, a LIBOR options trader at UBS Warburg in London, will take a similar position in the firm's Tokyo office next month to replace Keichi Tanaka, who left the firm last month. Billington said he is excited about the move because it will be a new challenge. In London Billington reports to Christine Morrissey, managing director of fixed income derivatives Europe. Billington will report to Todd Morakis, Asian head of LIBOR trading in Hong Kong. Morrissey and Morakis were traveling and could not be reached by press time.

European credit-default swap traders positioned for emerging market swap spreads tightening last week in the wake of the Argentinean crises. London traders said banks were selling protection on eastern European names in the expectation that spreads will narrow as the market realizes the region would not be affected by Latin America's woes. One trader said the most popular countries to write protection on are Turkey and the Slovak Republic. For example, five-year protection on the Slovak Republic traded at 204 basis points Monday in comparison to 140/160 before the Argentinean crises and had already come in to 180bps Tuesday. Hedge funds and banks' proprietary desks put on the trades. Moody's Investors Service rates the Slovak Republic Ba1 and Standard & Poor's rates it double B plus.

Piedmont Capital Management will swap 10% of its portfolio from agencies into high-grade corporates over the next few months, on the view that when interest rates finally come down--which for long-term rates has yet to happen-- corporate spreads will tighten. The move from government into high-grade corporates is designed to maximize yield without sacrificing too much liquidity, says Walter Campbell, president and portfolio manager of the firm, located in Hilton Head, SC.

Columbia Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based money management firm, has been extending duration on the expectation of another 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve and a decline in long-term rates due to a worsening economic picture. Bill Wivel, portfolio manager of some $600 million in taxable fixed-income, says he has been buying 30-year U.S. Treasuries and five-, 10- and 30-year high-grade corporates in the financial, drug and consumer products sectors. The moves extended duration from five years in early June to about 5.20 years as of last Monday. The new duration put the firm at 111% of its most common benchmark, the Lehman Brothers Aggregate, which was at 4.7 years last Monday.

When a Tennessee woman was ordered by a judge to make good on $1,100 in bad checks, she employed her own brand of creative financing and robbed a bank. According to Reuters, Paige Morphis left the courthouse after a hearing on Monday on a bad check charge, used a handgun to hold up the First State Bank in her nearby hometown of Rives, Tenn. and fled into a cornfield. "A teller in the bank recognized her and a search was started in the cornfield,'' said Obion County chief deputy sheriff Heath Cunningham. Morphis eluded the search party, returned to the courthouse and paid off the bad checks, Cunningham said. "Then she went home where we arrested her. We also confiscated about $7,000 left from the bank's money."

Heber, Fuger, Wendin is shortening its duration while buying selectively into the corporate sector, says Donald Jeffery, portfolio manager with the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based asset management firm. Jeffery says the firm's average duration is 1.80 years and he aims to shorten it to 1.40 years. The average maturity of the portfolio is less than three years and new purchases have carried 15- to-18-month maturities. In order to capture additional yield, Jeffery watches current versus historical spreads and hits the areas that seem to trade wider. He likes, for instance, the finance sector, because bonds of finance companies trade wider and offer more room for further tightening. As an example, he cites the purchase--at a 90 basis point spread over treasury--of Ford Motor Credit 6.12% '03 (A2/A). Last Monday, the bonds were trading at a price of 101.78. Jeffery mentions that the firm uses new cash or portfolio rollovers to finance its purchases.