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JP Morgan Chase has made a number of redundancies in its metals team globally, sources familiar with the matter said.
Less than ten personnel in London, New York and Singapore have been let go as the bank restructures reporting lines for its commodities sales team and streamlines its staffing following the planned sale of its physical business to the Mercuria Energy Group, the sources told Metal Bulletin.
Departures include London-based Martin Squires, an executive director in commodity hedge fund sales, who has been with the bank since 2001.
JP Morgan declined to comment.
The move follows the announcement that former global commodities head Blythe Masters is to leave JP Morgan once the sale of its physical commodities business to Mercuria is completed. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approvals.
Under Masters, the commodities sales team was the only asset team within the bank to retain an independent reporting line into its business group. Going forward, the commodities sales team will report into the bank’s global sales division, the sources said.
The bank recently reiterated its commitment to traditional banking activities in the commodities markets and named John Anderson and Michael Camacho as the group’s new co-heads. Anderson and Comacho report into James Kenny and Troy Rohrbaugh, co-heads of global rates, foreign exchange, commodities and emerging markets.
Anderson was most recently global head of non-oil energy trading, based in Houston. He previously served as global head of market risk for commodities and global head of metals, forex and proprietary trading.
Camacho has been ceo of commodities in EMEA and global head of non-energy trading, overseeing metals, investor products and agriculture. Prior to this, he was global head of commodity sales and structuring and head of the investor trading desk.
JP Morgan’s exit from physical commodities comes amid continued debate among US politicians and regulators over the role of banks in the sector. editorial@metalbulletin.com