Swiss Bank Corp. is re-entering the domestic custody and securities lending business.
The bank has hired three top salesmen from Sequor Group, BankAmerica Corp.'s securities processing subsidiary, to launch the effort.
They are led by Chris Bias, former head of sales for the domestic custody group at Sequor in San Francisco.
Joining him are salesmen Jack Calcagno, who will remain based in Los Angeles, and Tom Collins in New York.
Swiss Bank left the competitive domestic custody business a few years ago when it farmed the activity out to Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
But Gary Dedilectis, a vice president, said the bank now expects to turn a nice profit by administering and lending securities to municipalities, large corporations, and foreign bank branches.
Swiss Bank will target existing capital markets customers, and tap contacts of its new sales team.
Swiss Bank will continue to use Brown Brothers as custodian for securities of some private clients, but may eventually take the business back in-house.
Sequor, which BankAmerica inherited from Security Pacific Corp., has had a string of defections by top managers and customers over the past several months.
