Citadel Securities keeps ingesting Europe's top rates professionals

Citadel Securities has made no secret of its aspiration to expand its rates trading business in Europe. Michael De Pass, the firm's ex-Bank of America global head of rates trading, discussed his aspirations with Bloomberg back in June 2024. Even so, European rates professionals claim the firm's aggressive positioning has taken them by surprise.

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Citadel Securities declined to comment for this article, but sources point to the arrival of an array of top names from Goldman Sachs and beyond. 

Among them is Frank Flight, a former Goldman Sachs macro strategist who was briefly a portfolio manager at Brevan Howard and then Soros. Flight arrived Citadel Securities this month and is thought to be joining a team run by Nohshad Shah, the ex-Goldman Sachs co-head of EMEA rates who joined Citadel Securities in January. Flight and Shah previously worked together at Goldman.

Shah is also thought to be behind the recent arrivals of Natasha Ringrose, a former Deutsche Bank sales VP, and Ilane Attias, the new head of Continental European rates sales who joined from BofA.  

The three join a European rates team that's run from Paris and that includes big names like Stefan Boyce, the ex-BofA head of euroswaps trading, and Sergio Colantuono, the ex-Nomura head of European rates trading. David Kwan, a mysterious ex-Barclays rates trader is also thought to be a significant figure at Citadel Securities in London. The array of new sales hires are expected to bring in the necessary flow.

Citadel Securities has been hiring salespeople for its rates business outside London, too. Keith Cynar and Jordan Brink joined from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley respectively in March. 

Citadel Securities is keen to sell its trading platform as a white label product to banks that don't want to invest in their own capabilities, and rates trading is one of its offerings. Speaking at the Global Markets Conference earlier this month, Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito said the firm is building a scalable business that is doing for trading what Amazon did for e-commerce. 

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