The bank has managed to entice Mark Sweeting away from ABN Amro in London, where he was European head of FX sales to financial institutions. Sweeting is well liked and highly respected, and his departure after seven years at ABN Amro is a major loss to the bank, which is in a state of limbo as a result of its mooted takeover by either Barclays or RBS. The bank has no plans to replace Sweeting for the moment and his former staff now report to Scott Wacker, global head of macro corporate and local market sales. Sweeting will concentrate on US and UK real money sales at HVB when he joins after his gardening leave, which kicked off on Wednesday with a holiday in Dubai.
HVB has also hired Toby Angel from JPMorgan. He will work in its London office in hedge fund and real money sales. Sweeting and Angel report to Steve Turner, the bank’s global head of hedge fund sales, and Kenan Altunis, global head of FX distribution. In New York, the bank has hired Peter Graham from Pru-Bache. He reports locally to Paul McErlain, who runs US hedge fund sales.