Deutsche, Mellon Dismiss Loss Reports
LONDON and PITTSBURGH - Deutsche Bank AG and Mellon Financial Corp. Monday separately denied a news report saying the companies had lost a combined $2 billion on U.S. Treasury bond trading after the U.S. government started to buy back new issues of the 30-year bond."We don't expect any significant losses, and these holdings represent a very small portion of our overall investment portfolio," said Ron Gruendl, a spokesman for Mellon, whose trading assets totaled $590 million at the end of the fourth quarter.
In January the Treasury said it would cut back on its long-term debt by reducing new issues of the 30-year bond and buying back some outstanding issues.
This spurred price turmoil in the bond market that led to rumors of trading losses at several major financial institutions.
In a Feb. 4 memorandum, Deutsche Bank told employees that rumors about losses at the company "are entirely without foundation."
"Global markets overall and specifically the government trading business have experienced consistently good results throughout the year," the head of global markets, Edson Mitchell, and Saman Majd, head of OTC, derivatives, and government bonds, said in the memo.
"The same holds true today," said Macy Egerton, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank in New York, in response to a query Monday.
The U.K. newspaper The Financial Mail, citing unnamed sources, reported in its Sunday edition that Deutsche and Mellon had suffered losses..
- Laura Mandaro
Credit Suisse Unit Hires J.P. Morgan Exec
LONDON - Credit Suisse asset management, a unit of Credit Suisse Group, said Monday that it has hired Stephen Goldman from J.P. Morgan & Co. to head its European equity investments group.Mr. Goldman is to be responsible for building up European equity assets under management, excluding business in Switzerland, in a newly created post he is to start in April.
In a statement, the company said Mr. Goldman will focus initially on Credit Suisse's expansion in the institutional market in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Goldman has been with J.P. Morgan investment management for 10 years, most recently as managing director and head of U.K. equity and European client portfolio management.
He is to report to Steen Steincke, chief executive for the asset management unit in Europe, excluding Switzerland.
In a statement, Mr. Steincke said, "Building our equities business is one of our key strategic goals, and developing this business in Europe and particularly the U.K. fits effectively with our global approach."
- Liz Moyer
