HSBC Securities USA has hired two analysts from Credit Suisse First Boston. One is Van Hesser, who joins as a managing director covering finance companies, brokerage firms and banks. The hire reflects the firm's desire to become a major player in secondary trading and origination of bank and finance issues following the recent acquisition of Household International, according to Mike Allen, HSBC's head of corporate bond trading and research.
Hesser has made the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Research Team on five separate occasions. In the 2003 poll, he was a second-teamer in the finance sector and a third-teamer in U.S. banks. He has followed the banking industry for some 20 years, serving stints at Goldman Sachs and Standard & Poor's. He is joined at HSBC by Justin Ziegler, his former associate at CSFB, who becomes a v.p. and picks up lead coverage of the insurance industry. A call to Kevin Morley, high-grade research head at CSFB, was not returned.
Allen says the hiring of Hesser complements additions HSBC made earlier this year in the banking and finance space, including Gary Brown, a senior trader, Patty Bayer, responsible for medium-term note issuance, and Roger Thompson in capital markets. He sees no further hires in the banking and finance group, but declines to comment on his plans for research. "I run it at this point and we'll see what happens," he says.Robert Smalley, former research chief and banking analyst, was one of several departures from the corporate bond unit last year (BW, 10/14).