UBS's shrunken rates team is going for a Paris refresh

UBS's London rates team has had a few issues, but now it's got a new man in charge and is freshening itself up. It wants some new people. In Paris.

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The Swiss bank is advertising for two new junior rates traders, based in the Paris office. Sources at the bank say the roles are the initiative of Kilian Frensch, the ex-head of European interest rate swap trading who arrived earlier this year. 

Frensch's business at UBS is looking a bit diminished. Before he arrived, the bank lost nine people from its London rates business, including senior traders like Mark Samarasinghe and George Dramitinos. There are thought to be very few revenue generators left as a result.

UBS isn't commenting but the Paris jobs are not understood to represent a shift out of London, where UBS employs Frensch, his line manager Jonas Klink and their ex-Credit Suisse boss, Shane O'Cuinn. If anything, they represent a consolidation of the European rates business in Paris instead of Frankfurt. The bank has historically had three European government bond traders and one swaps trader in the German city.

Sources at the bank say the Paris hiring hasn't gone well so far. Frensch is thought to have made an offer to one junior who was bought back by the US bank she currently works for.

There are also rumours that UBS's rates business may have lost money during the chaos created by the Middle Eastern war. This follows some allegedly generous bonuses to retain key remaining staff after the exodus last year.

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