Revolving door still spinning at Dresdner
Harry Culham has raided his old shop Dresdner Kleinwort as he seeks to turn his new employer Merrill Lynch into a force in the FX market. Market sources say that Culham was subject to a non-talk clause that has now ended.
With their bonuses banked, Graham Wintersgill, who was Dresdner’s head of FX hedge funds sales, Tim Hall and Quentin Smith, both on FX sales, and Constantinos Constantinou, an FX options trader, have all made the short walk west through the City to Merrill. Talk is that they have all signed up on substantial guarantees; not surprisingly, Merrill has declined to comment.
Just what Dresdner makes of the whole thing can only be speculated, but it seems as fast as it rebuilds, Merrill poaches. A Dresdner spokesperson was keen to make clear that the departures do not mark a downsizing of its FX business in any way. “We have recently hired seven people across our FX business and are actively looking to recruit more. We are scaling up, not down,” he said.
Market sources suggest that Dresdner prevented a further three departures by digging deep into its pockets.