Barclays Onboards Michael Khouri as Managing Director of UK Credit Trading

Barclays has announced a key hire to its London-based credit trading team, onboarding Michael Khouri as its newest Managing Director per its latest move. The move runs counter to a mass exodus of personnel that have been leaving large lenders’ operations in the UK en masse over the past six months, following a dearth of profitability and sagging revenues at big banks, per a Reuters report.

Mr. Khouri lands at Barclays after a decade at Morgan Stanley. In his new role as a Managing Director of Barclays’ credit trading team, he will be reporting to Dan Friedman, the lenders’ head of European high yield and distressed credit. Despite the announcement, he will only begin at Barclays starting in late September.

Shifting Business Focus

While many other roles at Barclays have been on the decline in the UK in recent months; e.g. technology, backoffice, foreign Exchange (FX), and fixed income, the latest hire signals a bourgeoning confidence in the credit business, which may have been rejuvenated by the recent Brexit vote, which essentially redefined the playing field overnight.

During his ten years at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Khouri worked as a senior distressed debt trader as well as holding several senior level roles as a Managing and Executive Director, dating back to 2006. Additional stops also include Jefferies and Lehman Brothers, having worked as a European High Yield & Distressed trader and an analyst, dating back to 2000, according to information made public on his Linkedin profile.