Ex-Merrill Brokers Forced To Return Confidential Data

Reuters reports that a team of former Merrill Lynch brokers who left to join rival Morgan Stanley Smith Barney had to return boxes of documents containing client information early Thursday morning after Merrill filed a lawsuit against the brokers for taking confidential data.

An Alabama federal court late on Wednesday filed a temporary restraining order to former Merrill advisers Stephen Vise, Henry Hagood and Christopher Baker after the brokerage alleged that the team stole trade secrets by accessing data on clients with more than $216m in assets

In the meantime, the news organisation reports that, according to its sources, Edward Cook, the banker who ran European equity syndication at UBS, is joining BlackRock in its new capital markets team in London.

Cook is said to report to Rob Leach, former partner and portfolio manager at SAC Global Investors.

Bloomberg also reports that Jefferies is said to be starting a Canadian investment-banking business amid a jump in deals, and is said to have hired Credit Suisse banker Steven Latimer to lead it.

Latimer, based in Toronto, is also thought likely to oversee the firm’s natural resources and mining business in Canada.

The news organisation reports that, according to its sources, Kelvin Woo and Joe Zhang are leaving GLG Partners Inc., the London-based hedge fund bought by Man Group in 2010, to set up their own Asia-focused macro hedge fund.

Finally, Reuters reports that Citigroup has confirmed that Tatsuo Tanaka, currently deputy president of MUFG, will become chairman of Citigroup Japan on July 1, as the bank overhauls its top management in Japan after being penalised three times in eight years for violating various banking regulations.