Dr Jessica James has joined the German bank from Citi, where she was the global head of the quantitative investor solutions group. Prior to that, she was head of the risk advisory and currency overlay team for Bank One. Before her career in finance, James lectured in physics at Trinity College, Oxford.
Commerzbank said James’ first task would be to set up the new FX quantitative solutions team, which is being formed to meet the requests of clients.
James is based in London and reports jointly to Nick Crawford, global head of FX trading, and Gerald Dannhaeuser, global head of FX sales.
“Jessica is an expert who has been at the forefront of developing currency risk-management models and overlay strategies along with pioneering the use of extreme value theory to manage the risk of large FX moves,” says Crawford.
“Setting up a dedicated FX quantitative solutions team will enable us to meet our clients’ ambitious expectations for this asset class.”
In addition to publishing three books on currency trading, James is on the board of the Journal of Quantitative Finance, and the ICBI finance conference board.
She has participated in several government task forces, and is involved with the Institute of Physics as a member of its governing body and a member of its industry and business board.
Crawford, the former global head of FX at UniCredit, joined Commerzbank as global head of FX trading in January. In February, the bank launched Commander, its new single-dealer platform.
Commerzbank placed 15th in last year’s Euromoney FX survey, with an overall market share of 1.27%.