LONDON (Alliance News) - A senior Barclays PLC trader has faced losses of about 15 million pounds or USD19 million on Turkish bonds over the past few days, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Tolga Kirbay, a London-based credit trader, was caught on the wrong side of a wager over three trading days starting from Thursday, according to the financial news agency. Barclays generally makes up to USD100 million in revenue each year trading emerging-market corporate bonds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Bloomberg noted.
While the trade is relatively modest for the British bank overall - and while the Turkish lira has recovered some of its plunge in the past two days - it does highlight the growing appetite for risk at Barclays' securities unit, Bloomberg commented. It's unclear whether the positions have been hedged and whether Kirbay recovered the losses, it said.
"Barclays has an established and diversified credit business with all our trading positions hedged across the business," the bank said, according to Bloomberg. The Turkish trading operation "represents a very small part of our overall credit business."
Barclays (BARC)