Eileen Murphy, the former head of Barclays Capital's global collateralized debt obligation business, is looking to set up shop on the buy-side as an investment manager of structured finance collateral. Murphy, who has a long history on the sell-side and at the rating agencies, says her options include setting up her own asset management boutique to buy structured finance assets, or join an existing buy-sider that wants to get involved in the business. "There are some deep pockets that are looking to diversify their bets," she told BW last week from South Florida, where she was attending the World Series. Murphy (a Yankee fan) declined to name specific suitors, but says she is more likely to join an existing firm rather than found her own. "I'm more likely to do it with a big hedge fund backer in a format where I feel that quality control is looked after; I would go and get $100 million in seed capital from somewhere and build a business," she explains.
Murphy left Barclays at the end of last month after a well-known, long-standing disagreement with upper management over the direction of the business. Her departure came shortly after Barclays' sold off three collateralized loan obligations for which it had acted as a collateral manager.