State Street has confirmed the closure of its fixed income agency lending desk in Frankfurt. Inherited as part of the Deutsche GSS acquisition, the trading activity and operational support is being moved to London. “We are consolidating our fixed income trading activities in London, which is the centre of international fixed income distribution,” says Chris Taylor, the State Street SVP responsible for the integration of the former Deutsche GSS securities financing function. “A large percentage of the trading activity that was conducted from Frankfurt on behalf of our clients was into UK counterparts, so it made sense to consolidate the two operations into one.”
Head trader Thomas Schmitt and senior trader Rebecca Holz were made redundant, and will be leaving this summer. One junior employee, Friedrich Driftmann, had already left, joining the DWS investment arm of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt before Christmas (and before the decision to close Frankfurt was announced) to help them set up a securities lending programme, though State Street is confident it will retain a large slice of the Deutsche Asset Management securities lending business. Most of the operations people supporting the Frankfurt trading desk will be redeployed in the Depotbank business State Street acquired from Deutsche GSS..