Deutsche Taps Mexico Sales Head

Iker Kutz, recently a director at BofA-Merrill’s Mexico fixed income desk, has moved to Deutsche Bank in Mexico. He will be a director and head of institutional sales for the German bank, based in DF. In May, Deutsche appointed former Merrill Mexico country head Alberto Ardura as MD and head of LatAm DCM corporate coverage, based in New York. It earlier in the year hired derivatives trading rainmaker Karan Madan, who quit Merrill to become the German shop’s new head of LatAm debt. The Kutz departure coincides with the exit last week of Jorge Vallarino, a VP in Merrill Lynch’s Mexico City based global markets and investment banking unit. Both have apparently been replaced, and BofA-Merrill is said to be making additional hires in corporate and investment banking in Mexico. The Mexico office is now run by former BofA country head and workout specialist Orlando Loera, leaving Laurent Massart and Pedro Giral as the sole remaining senior Merrill officials. “If they do what they say they will, and use some of the balance sheet and muscle of Bank of America, there should be a lot of opportunity,” says a Mexico-based banker familiar with Merrill’s operations. Separately, Pablo Maschinist, a VP in the LatAm sales and trading team in NY is also heard quitting, apparently for a hedge fund. He was apparently still with the shop Thursday. “The company’s policy is not to comment on staff,” says a BofA-Merrill spokeswoman, when asked about the Kutz, Vallerino and Maschinist departures.