RBS expands interbank sales

The move aims to offer bank clients a bespoke cross-product service with 24-hour coverage in FX spot, FX swaps -- including emerging market currencies -- and vanilla and exotic FX options, as well a range of long-dated FX options.

In London, the spot FX and FX options interbank sales teams have now merged, and are co-managed by global FX head Roger Hawes and Peter Rading, global head of FX options at RBS in London.

"This new global structure will allow us to co-ordinate spot and options more effectively -- clients can still have one contact if they want but the options and spot side will be much more co-ordinated," said Rading. "It allows us to offer instant access on the trading desk rather than being a sales-led business." This is much better suited to the client type, he added.

The interbank team in London was set up about two years ago as an FX options-focused bank sales team, but the bank has seen an increasing demand for the service across its FX products.

"We saw an increasing number of banks wanting to be clients and they need a specific service -- they are professional banks wanting prices quickly and competitively," Rading told FX Week. "We have seen a lot of volume from a vast number of banks in Europe -- it made sense to extend that service into Asia and the US."

As part of the expansion, Robert Dantone moves internally from the financial institutions sales desk to manage the new interbank sales desk in New York. An additional dealer will be hired in the second quarter for North American coverage, said Rading.

In Asia, Adrian Tan relocates from the Singapore FX sales team to be co-located with the FX option trading desk in Hong Kong, while in Tokyo, dealer Ian Williams moves to cover interbank sales.

This latest interbank initiative at RBS adds to its participation as a prime broker on interbank prime brokerage service from spot broker EBS alongside Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase.

It also hired three FX dealers to run a newly established North American prime brokerage business in Chicago last year (FX Week, September 29).

Interbank sales is a growing sector in the FX market, as an increasing number of mid-level banks retreat from market-making to become clients of the top tier. RBS’s move now follows banks such as Lehman Brothers (FX Week, August 4, 2003) and Deutsche Bank (FX Week, April 14), which have staffed up accordingly.