14/04/2010 Author: Gwyn Roberts

Press quits Morgan Stanley's PB team

Joel Press has quit Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage team, HFMWeek can exclusively reveal, as Alex Ehrlich, the unit’s new global chief, continues to reshape the bank’s hedge fund services business.

Press, a well-known figure within the hedge fund community, served as a managing director at Morgan for three years, following his 2007 recruitment from Ernst & Young. Based in the bank’s New York office, Press was largely responsible for identifying strategic opportunities for the unit.

The departure follows a difficult period for Morgan’s prime brokerage division, although the specific reasons behind Press’s decision to leave are still unknown at this stage, while the bank declined to comment.

Like many investment bank-owned prime brokers, Morgan Stanley was hit hard by clients leaving to seek alternative prime brokerage arrangements in the wake of the Lehman collapse. While funds have returned to the unit, industry sources suggest that the bank has been unhappy with the rates of return and the level of returning assets.

Ehrlich, responsible for the rapid growth of UBS’s prime brokerage unit, was poached from the Swiss bank in May last year. Charged with growing the Morgan business, he replaced former head, Stuart Hendel, who is now occupying Ehrlich’s old role as head of prime brokerage at UBS 

Part of Morgan’s new growth strategy has been to pursue a more sales orientated culture. Last week HFMWeek exclusively revealed that Ehrlich was planning to open a Morgan Stanley prime brokerage presence in Boston, hiring a UBS colleague to head up the new unit.

Michael Torrisi, formerly managing director of UBS Prime Brokerage Services in Boston, will launch Morgan Stanley’s New England-prime brokerage in the summer.

Press arrived at Morgan with a stellar reputation. As head of Ernst & Young’s global hedge fund practice from 1989-2006, he created the sector’s largest hedge fund accountancy business. At one stage the firm was dealing with almost two thirds of the world’s funds.