Stifel Financial made five senior hires within its European fixed income division. Matt Smith, Cedric Beaumont, Christopher Greenwood, Andrew Oliver and Chris Spear all joined Stifel’s European fixed income group and are based in various locations throughout Europe. The team was brought on to strengthen Stifel’s global presence and further augment the company’s leveraged loans and GBP franchises.

Smith joined Stifel as a managing director in the European loans trading team to help grow the firm’s leveraged loan platform. He has more than 25 years of trading and management experience in the European loans and high-yield/distressed bond markets. Over the course of his career, Smith has held the position of head of loans and distressed debt trading at BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank.

Beaumont joined Stifel as part of the senior fixed income sales and sourcing team. Previously, he was at Citigroup, where he was responsible for bank coverage on the distressed loan trading desk. He has more than 20 years of relevant experience, including roles as a senior advisor at strategic value partners in London, and as a managing director at NATIXIS, where he was the global head of secondary and loan trading. Beaumont is based in Paris.

Greenwood joined Stifel from NatWest in London, where he worked as a loans and distressed analyst. He joined Stifel as part of the European credit research team and has a decade of credit experience, ranging from new-issue leveraged loans and high-yield bonds to more stressed-distressed situations. Greenwood is based in London.

Also based in London, Oliver has more than 20 years of experience in bond/synthetics trading and sales. He joined Stifel as part of the European credit sales team and will work with Spear and Stifel veteran Jock Ramsay to form the core of the dedicated GBP credit sales team in Europe. Earlier in his career, Oliver served as a GBP bond trader and later as executive director at JP Morgan in addition to a portfolio manager role at Merrill Lynch Investment Management.

Spear joined Stifel as part of the European credit sales team. Previously, he was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London as a director of credit sales to UK real money. Before that, he was at Deutsche Bank in the same role. Spear is based in London.

“The addition of these key hires will underpin our leveraged loans and GBP franchises as some of the strongest in the region,” Michael Levy, head of European fixed income for Stifel, said. “We are pleased to welcome them to Stifel as we continue making strategic investments to benefit our clients’ evolving needs.”

Stifel Financial is a financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis that conducts its banking, securities and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries.