JPMorgan poached one of Morgan Stanley's top sales traders as hiring heats up

Given that Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick thinks this is the era of equities sales and trading, he would probably prefer that the bank's top people don't leave for rival banks.

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It's unfortunate, then, that Ben Kussin, a Morgan Stanley sales trader who had been with the bank for his whole career since leaving university, has just left Morgan Stanley after 16 years for JPMorgan.

JPMorgan didn't respond to requests to comment. Nor did Kussin. Presumably he'll be a sales trader again.

Morgan Stanley promoted Kussin to managing director in January 2021. He's joining JPMorgan as a managing director on a salary alone that's likely to be in excess of $350k. The H1B visa database shows that JPMorgan recently hired an executive director of international equity sales on a salary of $285k.

JPMorgan isn't alone in bolstering its US equities sales team. Joseph Anastasio recently arrived at Citi to head high touch sales trading. He previously spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, hired Faousie Batouche, an equity derivatives structurer from BNP Paribas, in August. 

Equities sales and trading revenues rose 18% in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg. Pick proclaimed that it, "continues to be an equities world." 

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