Citadel has just hired a top trader of Morgan Stanley’s electronic trading 

Ken Griffin’s Citadel has hired a top trader from Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley’s global head of rates electronic trading, Nicola White, is joining Citadel Securities as global COO for fixed income, currencies and commodities, the firm has confirmed.

“She has a broad and varied skill set that’s going to help us grow the business further,” Paul Hamill, Citadel Securities’ global head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, told Business Insider.

“She’s extremely talented and we’re very thrilled to have her join us.”

Bloomberg first reported that White was leaving Morgan Stanley for Citadel.

White joined Morgan Stanley as a software developer for the mortgage-backed bond business in 2003 after interning with the firm in 2002, according to a profile on Morgan Stanley’s website.

She has developed real-time mortgage pricing software, traded government bonds, and worked with clients and market structure in a COO role, according to the profile.

Citadel in 2014 hired Hamill from UBS to develop its fixed-income and credit trading division.

The firm wants to compete in businesses where investment banks are pulling back. It began trading credit-default swaps earlier in 2016.

“Certain changes in market structure over the last several years have created a landscape where firms like us can enter a market and compete with traditional investment banks, and interest rate swaps trading is a good example of this,” Hamill said.

“The banks are pulling back and some are even getting out of a lot of these businesses as many lack the technology or the risk appetite needed to compete, and that pullback coupled with some of the regulatory changes impacting market structure have created a great opportunity for us to serve investors.”

Source: Business Insider

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