Previously we presented an expose [5]on various Geneva-based hedge funds traders, all of whom were implicated in Libor manipulation in their current or prior positions, which promptly resulted [6]in the halting of trading privileges of one of the named individuals. Tonight it is time to back away from the buyside and to refocus on the banking sector, in the process jumping a few hundred kilometers to the northeast and that other Swiss banking capital, Zurich, where we get to do a quick run through several UBS Libor traders. Pardon, make that ex-traders. And make that "short-term interest rate" traders which naturally means OIS, IRS, FRA, Money Markets and, sometimes Euribor. In other words, all the other various IR derivatives which will blow up next as the Libor inquiry gets deeper and deeper into the Swiss rabbit hole. But before the global media juggernaut gets there, in about 6-8 weeks, we will do a quick roster of several voluntarily "retired" UBS traders, all of whom are now "looking for new challenges" and a rather amusing finding.
As a reminder [7], UBS "is one of a handful of institutions that have already come forward to authorities with information about possible abuses of rate-setting processes. The bank first disclosed last year that it had been granted so-called “conditional immunity." In other words, a witness for the prosecution. In even other words: a rat. And as a rat, it is only fitting that the bank has been quietly and efficiently purging the impure elements within its organization, and specifically, its Zurich office.
We start with Holger Seger [7], UBS' global head of short-term interest rates trading, and the first quiet casualty of Lieborgate, whose purge took place in the months before the infamous Barclays Bollinger emails hit the front pages. In short: Holger is now "ready for a new challenge [8]." (We also dispassionately note that among the venues where Monsieur Seger worked is one Singapore, a city which has so far escaped completely unscathed in the Libor investigation, yet which as per our previous reports, continues to feature quite prominently in the bio of every single individual marked with Libor stigma.)
[9]
We then continue on to one Patrick Heusser who most recently was an UBS Executive Director and Cash Collateral Trader in the USD Interest Rate Curve. Read Libor trader. And oh yes, he worked in Singapore too. We said "was" because just like Mr. Seger above, he is now "looking for a new challenge [8]."
[10]
Next up on our list of perfectly random list of UBS, and ex-UBS traders, is one Mr. Laurent De Meyer. His role is Director of Short-Term Interest Rates, yes at UBS, where he managed the EUR team of 5 "to great success." We said is - we meant was because Laurent, copying Patrick above verbatim, is also "ready for a new challenge [11]."
[12]
And finally, and again completely randomly, we stumble upon one Mr. Marco Steiner. Marco, like all the previous gentlemen, was a STIR trader, responsible for "funding the bank in CHF" who was a market maker in FX Forwards, TOIS, IRS, FRA and Futures. He also developed spreadsheets for various purposes. Oh yes, and Marco previously worked in... Singapore. Yet of biggest import is that after having traded various short-term unsecured debt instruments, read an FX Libor curve or another, is no longer with the firm. In fact, Marco is now "looking for new challenge [13]."
[14]
The observation one can derive from the above, which incidentally is merely a sample of a much grander tapestry which we will continue exposing piece by piece since the mainstream media continues to ignore the details, is that while UBS has already let go of its natural "scapegoats" which will only make fingerpointing in the critical "evidentiary" phase, conditional immunity notwithstanding, it had a knack for procuring talent which in the absence of 'collective collaboration' would have been utterly and totally helpless.
Now there is nothing wrong with that: after all there is a reason for the saying "Strength in Numbers"... Nonetheless, one can almost imagine the late afternoon happenings at the second floor of the Paradeplatz Sprüngli where all of the above decided to 'cross-polinate' their LinkedIn profiles, and express the earnest desire to demonstrate their new potential employers, hopefully not Lombard Odier and BlueCrest - that would make our lives too easy, their "readiness to look for new challenges."
One may almost call it... collusive.