LONDON, June 28 (IFR) - Barclays has hired Michael Khouri asa managing director in its London-based credit trading team.
Khouri joins after 10 years at Morgan Stanley where heworked as a senior distressed debt trader. Prior to that, he wasat Lehman Brothers and Jefferies.
Khouri is expected to take up his role at Barclays in lateSeptember and will report to Dan Friedman who heads Europeanhigh yield and distressed credit trading at the bank.
The latest hire signals growing confidence in the creditbusiness and opportunities for growth, according to a personfamiliar with the appointment.
As part of a streamlining of investment banking operationsthat got underway two years ago, Barclays moved interest rates,foreign exchange and commodities products into a new macro unitafter those businesses were battered by a structural andcyclical decline. That has enabled the bank to reweightactivities towards origination businesses like banking andcredit, where primary and secondary operations offer synergies.
At the same time, the bank embarked on a three-year plan toaxe 7,000 jobs and moved around £90bn of risk weighted assetsinto a non-core unit. Since taking the decision to shrink theinvestment bank two years ago, Barclays has halved RWAs. (Reporting by Helen Bartholomew; Editing by Steve Slater)
Barclays (BARC)
