Citigroup has hired a quant trading and derivatives exec from Credit Suisse, the latest in the rash of equity derivatives moves across Wall Street.
Jeff Berton, formerly the head of Quantitative Investment Solutions (QIS) in the Americas at Credit Suisse, is joining Citi to run a similarly focused unit on a global scale, according to people familiar with the matter.
Berton will lead Citi Investment Strategies (CIS), a global team within the bank’s Markets & Securities Services division focused on quantitative index strategies, and he’ll also be the head of exotics trading in North America, the people said.
Spokesmen for Citi and Credit Suisse declined to comment. Berton could not be reached for comment.
Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2016, Berton worked at JPMorgan Chase, where he started his career in 2003, according to FINRA records.
Competition for equities talent has been fierce in 2018 amid a rebound in volatility that has revived banks’ stock-trading businesses, a trend that has been epitomized by the equity derivatives sector.
Equity derivatives traders have become the focus of an intense Wall Street hiring battleground, with more than 40 moves at the level of vice president or higher in equity derivatives in the US this year. Multiple factors are driving the trend, but the catalyst that opened the floodgates was the blowup of the Cboe Volatility Index — known as the VIX — earlier this year, according to industry insiders.
Citi, which underwent a structural reorganization of its equities division earlier this year, in May hired Seok Yoon Jeong, formerly of JPMorgan Chase, as its head of flow volatility trading in the Americas.
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