Merrill Lynch has hired Alan Galishoff from J.P. Morgan Securities to head up a nascent mortgage-backed securities proprietary trading effort, a move first reported last Tuesday on www.bondweek.com. Galishoff could not be reached for comment last Tuesday morning, with a co-worker saying he had already left the firm. He had been head of J.P. Morgan's collateralized mortgage obligation and MBS derivative effort since early 2000. He will report to Merrill's global rates group co-head Barry Wittlin. Wittlin did not return a phone call seeking comment, nor did he reply to an e-mail message. It could not be determined if Galishoff will be the sole MBS arbitrage trader there or if he will be part of a larger group.
Kevin Finnerty, the head of J.P. Morgan's residential MBS group and Galishoff's former boss, says the decision on whether to replace him via an internal hire or by looking outside the firm has not been made. In 2002, J.P. Morgan ranked 11th in the CMO league tables, according to Bloomberg, with $26.5 billion issued. Finnerty continues that Galishoff left on good terms, noting that he had spent the last few months planning Galishoff's shift to J.P. Morgan's prop trading area because he had expressed a desire to "move away from the client-driven business." He says Galishoff's move was a surprise only "in that we were inside the five-yard line" on his transfer. Asked to speculate why he made the move, Finnerty says only, "Alan says he couldn't tell me. I guess he found Merrill's risk profile or the compensation prospects there more to his liking."