Debt market round up: Cottle’s circus

Gary Cottle has left Morgan Stanley less than a year after joining the US investment bank. He joins Royal Bank of Scotland as head of corporate risk solutions for the UK and Europe.

Cottle was made head of corporates in European global capital markets in June 2006. He had previously headed corporate and sovereign derivatives at Barcap, where he worked for 12 years. His new role involves marketing and originating all risk hedging products for corporates and local authorities. At RBS, Cottle has a dual reporting line, to Peter Nielsen, head of treasury and investor products, and to Robert Jolliffe, head of DCM.

Hiring Cottle is good business for RBS because he has a proven track record in corporate risk solutions. Although RBS is known to have a massive platform, part of its weakness has been in being able to offer a full product suite to its clients. The team that Cottle will run is said to be in the region of 200, covering FX, rates, credit and commodities.

At Morgan Stanley, Cottle reported to John Hyman, European head of global capital markets. His duties are at present being split between Piers Harris and Philip Lingnau, managing directors in the corporates group of GCM.

Claus Scrumsager is joining Morgan Stanley from HSBC, starting June 8, as a senior debt banker. He worked in derivative structured product sales at HSBC.