Bank of America gave its big Citi hire its critical credit job
Fresh from promoting Brian Carosielli as global head of credit trading, Bank of America has made some new changes to its credit business. It hasn't hired any new traders. It has given its existing big credit traders some even bigger jobs.
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The bank isn't commenting, but sources say that Derek Hafer, the current head of global macro trading, fixed income currencies and commodities trading and ETF trading at BofA, has been named head of global systematic trading alongside his existing roles.
It's a critical job for Hafer, who's based in New York and who joined BofA from Citi in April 2023. Hefer spent 17 years at Citi and was latterly global head of spread product quant trading there. In a possibly unrelated move, Ismail Akil, BofA's former EMEA lead of credit portfolio trading & corporate bonds systematic market making, left for hedge fund Millennium in June 2024. Hafer is expected to drive BofA's systematic algo and ETF trading business.
Hefer's promotion comes as electronic trading permeates the credit market, leaving traditional credit traders adrift. Intelligence firm Coalition Greenwich says 49% of investment grade trading and 35% of high yield trading in the US now take place electronically. This is increasing as market makers like Citadel Securities push into the market. European regulators' commitment to launch a US-style consolidated tape for data on bond transactions in 2025 is expected to fuel growth in Europe next year.
Hafer isn't the only big BofA trader with a new and bigger job. Mitchell Zekyrgias, a long serving MD in BofA's credit team has been handed new responsibilities too. He's become head of EMEA developed markets credit trading alongside his current responsibilities as head of EMEA distressed and special situations trading.
And Gerald Mimoun has been named head of global emerging markets flow credit reporting into Larry Wolfson head of America’s and APAC credit flow trading. Mimoun has been at BofA since 1997.
It's not clear what the changes mean for bonuses at this late stage of the year. Fixed income sales and trading revenues at Bank of America rose 0.8% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, compared to an increase of 14% at best in class Morgan Stanley.
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