Citadel Securities, the market-making arm of Ken Griffin’s empire, hired Citigroup Inc.’s Sam Berberian as it builds out a credit-trading platform to compete with Wall Street banks.
(Bloomberg) — Citadel Securities, the market-making arm of Ken Griffin’s empire, hired Citigroup Inc.’s Sam Berberian as it builds out a credit-trading platform to compete with Wall Street banks.
Berberian, a well-known trader in the corporate-credit world, was hired by the firm after five years at Citigroup, where he ran corporate cash trading in North America. He will join Citadel in the fall, after a period of so-called garden leave, as head of credit trading, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.
Representatives for Citadel and Citigroup declined to comment.
The hiring comes amid a continued shift to electronic trading in corporate debt. Citadel started offering investment-grade trading to clients last month with plans to make markets in high-yield bonds by the end of the year, Bloomberg News reported. It also plans to offer portfolio trades, a novel tech-powered approach to buy and sell hundreds of debt securities in one fell swoop.
Read More: Citadel Securities Is Muscling Its Way Into Credit Market-Making
Citigroup has reworked its own credit-trading unit as the bank seeks to make the business more automated. In 2021, it promoted Berberian to oversee its investment-grade, high-yield and loan-trading businesses. Before Citigroup, Berberian was co-head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s high-yield desk.
Trading firms such as Citadel and Jane Street have been encroaching on the turf of Wall Street dealers that still dominate trading with their originate-to-distribute model. But more market makers are looking for opportunities to transact across the credit market using technology to cut costs and boost efficiency.
Citadel started by providing clients liquidity in 10,000 investment-grade securities. It has plans to quote high-yield debt and enter the portfolio-trading space, where dealers package up a series of bonds often via an exchange-traded fund, later this year.
–With assistance from Jenny Surane.
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