Jefferies Lands B of A Team For Prime Brokerage Push

Jefferies & Company has solidified its push into the prime brokerage space with the hiring of a six-person team from Banc of America Securities. Headlining the group is Glen Dailey, who was managing director and chief operating officer of B of A’s Prime Brokerage Services business and will lead Jefferies’ expansion of its prime broker franchise.

“Jefferies has been interested in prime brokerage for a while... bringing Glen in with his handpicked team means now they are cooking with gas,” a market player said. "[By hiring Dailey] they’ve caught the tiger by the tail.” Commenting on his move, Dailey said: “Jefferies has one of the leading trading desks and it is a firm that could be a big player in the prime brokerage business. And by building out its research and investment banking the firm is now more attractive than ever.”

Jefferies brings a team of five senior professionals fro B of A. John Kunze joins as managing director and head of technology; Evan Gevarter is managing director and head of relationship management; Michael Hill is principal and senior relationship manager; Penn Miller-Jones is managing director and senior salesman and Christoper Bianchi is principal and senior operations manager. The entire team will be in place at Jefferies March 6, said Dailey.

B of A may not directly replace the six positions of those departed, but has hired many new staffers to the prime brokerage services unit in the last year and will continue to add new help in coming months, said Melissa Fox, spokeswoman for Bank of America. Dailey’s previous role will not be filled. Instead, Matt Jose, principle and Roman Krawciw, managing director, will report to Chris Pesce, global head of prime brokerage. The departures have little impact on the prime brokerage business and B of A remains committed to the business, Fox added.