Morgan Stanley Structured-Products Trader Jain Departs Bank

Nirjhar Jain, Morgan Stanley’s U.S. head of structured-products credit trading, has left the bank, and may join an investment firm.

Jain, 33, who oversaw trading of residential- and commercial-mortgage bonds, asset-backed securities and collateralized loan obligations at the New York-based firm, plans to “pursue opportunities on the buy side,” according to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Jain joined Morgan Stanley last year from Deutsche Bank AG, where he ran European asset-backed securities trading. He earlier traded so-called ABX index credit-default-swap contracts tied to subprime-mortgage bonds during the boom in that derivatives market, which the Frankfurt-based lender helped create.

Mark Lake, a Morgan Stanley spokesman, confirmed the details of the memo and declined to comment further. Jain confirmed his departure.

Mike DePietro, Morgan Stanley’s head of residential-mortgage-backed securities trading, Rebecca Hogan, its head of consumer asset-backed securities and CLO trading, and Kevin Ng, who runs commercial-mortgage bond trading, will now report directly to Jay Hallik, the firm’s global head of securitized-products trading, according to the memo.