After serving at UBS for 12 years, Brad Gewehr has moved on to become a director of public finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
A spokesman for Bank of America Merrill confirmed the hire Wednesday but would neither say if Gewehr had begun work nor outline his responsibilities. Gewehr and the public finance team declined to comment.
According to his profile on LinkedIn, Gewehr joined the bank as a director in May.
UBS confirmed that Gewehr left his role as director of municipal research at the end of April.
He will be replaced by Thomas McLoughlin, the president and chief executive officer at struggling bond insurer National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. McLoughlin is slated to begin July 26.
Bank of America Merrill is currently the top-ranked underwriter in the industry, according to Thomson Reuters. The bank has led 247 deals this calendar year totaling $29.49 billion, giving it a 14.2% market share and a slight edge over Citi, which has underwritten $29.42 billion.
Gewehr was head of fixed income at UBS Wealth Management from July 2008 to April 2010 and previously spent 10 years as a managing director at UBS Investment Bank. From 1991 to 1998 he was a managing director with Moody’s Investors Service.
UBS closed its negotiated institutional municipal securities group in June 2008 as part of an effort to refocus the fixed income, currencies, and commodities business. More than 300 people worked in the muni group at that time, including 125 bankers.
It maintained its competitive underwriting capabilities and trading of secondary market product within UBS Wealth Management. That group then signed a two-year agreement giving it equal access to all new negotiated deals underwritten by JPMorgan, an agreement that was recently extended to 2013.
A spokesman for the bank said Wednesday the hire of McLoughlin was not an expansion, but rather a recognition that “a significant number of our clients invest in munis.”
UBS on Tuesday said it was making efforts to direct a team of “leading analysts dedicated to providing thoughtful commentary, timely guidance and in-depth analysis to our clients and financial advisers.”
