BTIG, an institutional broker dealer specialising in equity trading and related brokerage services, has announced it is expanding its offering by launching a fixed income group.
BTIG, an institutional broker dealer specialising in equity trading and related brokerage services, has announced it is expanding its offering by launching a fixed income group.
The team will be focused on sales and trading of credit products, which will cover the full credit spectrum from investment grade to distressed debt.
In addition, BTIG will be creating a new team to expand into asset-backed securities/mortgage-backed securities trading.
The expansion into credit trading will add a further 60 employees to the firm’s global headcount.
To lead the fixed income team, BTIG has hired Jon Bass and John Purcell as co-heads of global fixed income. Together they bring 50 years of fixed income experience to the BTIG team.
Bass joins BTIG from UBS Investment Bank where he was most recently head of fixed income client management and previously head of all US fixed income distribution. He was also a member of the UBS Investment Bank board. Before UBS, he was a managing director in the corporate sales group at Citigroup.
Prior to joining BTIG, Purcell was with Citigroup, where he held a variety of fixed income positions and was most recently head of global fixed income syndicate and North America capital markets. Prior to joining Salomon Bros. in 1995, he was a managing director at NatWest Markets.
"Based on the ongoing dialog with our clients, entering the fixed income market seems like a natural extension of our current offering. Furthermore, with the availability of high quality talent, we feel there is a real opportunity for highly focused firms like ours to enter the market," says Steven Starker, co-founder of BTIG. "Both John and Jon bring extensive fixed income experience to our team as we continue to grow both in the US and internationally."
"BTIG is well positioned to take advantage of the structural changes in the fixed income markets," Bass and Purcell said in a joint statement. "We have a differentiated value added model which, with premier sales and trading staff, and BTIG’s extensive equity client penetration will allow us to offer clients more consistent liquidity and better market knowledge."
