Trip Mestanas, a more than 20-year veteran of the mortgage-backed securities markets, has left Deutsche Bank to join Merrill Lynch. At Deutsche Bank, Mestanas was a managing director and head of pass-through trading. A trader on the desk confirmed his departure. Mestanas will be the head of pass-though trading at Merrill and will report to Barry Wittlin, head of global rates group. He starts at Merrill in May.
Michele Agostinho, spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank, and Michael DuVally, spokesman for Merrill, could not provide more information.
The hires comes as part of Merrill's continuing effort to expand its MBS trading operations, according to people familiar with the developments.