Deutsche Starts Proprietary Desk In U.K. While Continuing Expansion

Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (DMG) is setting up an FX proprietary/client advisory desk in London under recently hired Eugene Belin of Citibank, says Nick Beecroft, DMG's head of FX in London. In addition to the new desk, DMG has added several dealers to its sales desks in a bid to boost its presence.

The proprietary desk is a new venture within the foreign exchange division and is a bit different to the traditional proprietary operation in that its emphasis will be on client contact, says Beecroft.

"Eugene and his team will be a resource at the sales team's disposal -- to go and visit clients who are interested in our trading views, explain why we have particular exposures and what we think will happen in the markets," says Beecroft. "It's very much an addition to the sales activity as well."

"I think a lot of clients will welcome that input into how a bank's proprietary team is thinking," he adds. "[Belin] was specifically chosen for this-- he's not just a plain vanilla FX trader. He'll be able to go along and give an educated picture of why we're taking risk and why we're using particular instruments to do it."

Beecroft says he envisions outside hires to staff the desk, but declines to say how large it will be, adding that it won't be "too large." Belin has a strong derivatives background and spent the past nine years with Citibank, most recently running its international capital hedging unit in London. He will report to Beecroft.

On the sales side, two of the three hires will focus on the U.K. funds market. Brian Dobson, a 22-year veteran of the FX markets, joins from Chase, were he was running the U.K. investor desk. Juliet Wedderburn also joined the investor desk from Bankers Trust, where she was running the funds coverage desk (FXW, March 18). She specifically brings with her a "deep understanding" of the Scottish fund management community, notes Beecroft.

The third sales hire, Sarah Rowe, also of Chase in London, focuses on the U.K. corporate sector. "It's part of our ongoing push to increase our sales capability," says Beecroft. "They all have excellent experience and we're confident they're going to significantly boost that capability."

Beecroft adds that the sales team is nearly complete and that none of the recent hires change the managerial structure. Wedderburn, Dobson and Rowe all report to Margaret Croysdill, who runs domestic sales, for both the corporate and investor sectors. One area that will see further strengthening is the cross-border sales capability, specifically inter-Europe, says Beecroft.