UBS appoints Misra, Psyllidis co-heads of currency unit

ZURICH: UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank in terms of assets, appointed Rajeev Misra and Dimitri Psyllidis as co-heads of fixed-income, currencies and commodities.

Misra, 47, and Psyllidis, 43, take on the roles in addition to their responsibilities as global heads of credit and macro, respectively, the Zurich-based bank said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. Carsten Kengeter, 42, the co-head of UBS’ investment bank, will relinquish his role as the co-head of FICC with Jeffrey Mayer, 50, who will take on the new position of executive chairman of FICC, the bank said.

UBS aims to reach an annual pre-tax profit of 6 billion francs ($5.76 billion) at the investment bank over the next three to five years, after losses since 2007. The division intends to increase annual revenue at the debt unit to 8 billion francs in the period, close to the levels achieved before the credit crisis led to record losses at the bank.

The company on Monday also said it hired Neal Shear, 55, as global head of securities, to be based in Stamford, Connecticut, and Roberto Hoornweg, 41, as the global head of securities distribution, to be based in London.