Bear Stearns has hired John Casey to the new position of associate director and corporate bond trader, based in New York. He joins from Wachovia Securities, where he was also a corporate bond trader in New York. James Kenny, senior managing director in charge of corporate bond trading at Bear Stearns, says Casey will run the retail and odd lot parts of the bank and finance trading book, and that he has experience in the retail business at Wachovia which will help Bear Stearns build that effort on the trading side.
Kenny would not elaborate on Bear Stearns' reason for beefing up its retail trading effort, though it has been widely reported that the firm hired Richard Saperstein and a 13-person high-net-worth cash management team from CIBC World Markets in April.
A call to Casey was not returned.
At Wachovia, Casey was a v.p. reporting to Joe Castelluccio, head of the corporate bond desk. Jim Gorman, a Wachovia spokesman, says the firm is still evaluating its options regarding a possible replacement.