信用衍生品先驅從摩根大通辭職
Blythe Masters, a pioneer of credit derivatives, one of the products at the heart of the financial crisis, has resigned from JPMorgan Chase after more than two decades at the bank.
信用衍生品領域的先驅布萊斯•馬斯特斯(Blythe Masters)已從摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)辭職。在此之前馬斯特斯已在該行工作了27年。信用衍生品是導致金融危機的元兇之一。Ms Masters, 45, was at the vanguard of the development of credit derivatives in the 1990s, credited with the creation of a new risk mitigation tool but after the crisis vilified as an architect of “weapons of mass destruction”.
45歲的馬斯特斯在上世紀90年代曾是開發信用衍生品的先驅，她因創造了一種新的風險緩解工具而聞名於世。不過在金融危機爆發後，有人指責她設計了一種“大規模殺傷性武器”。
Her friends say it was a caricature: Ms Masters developed but did not invent the product and stopped working in the area years before derivatives on mortgage securities stoked the market meltdown in 2008, though she did later act as an industry advocate.
馬斯特斯的朋友表示這種指責太過簡單化：馬斯特斯開發了這種金融產品，但該產品的創意卻不是她發明的，而且她在2008年按揭證券衍生品造成市場崩潰前幾年就已停止了在該領域的工作——儘管她後來確實扮演了行業倡導者的角色。
The departure of one of the most prominent women on Wall Street was announced in an internal memo from Jamie Dimon, chief executive, and Daniel Pinto, head of the investment bank. It praised her “remarkable” career and said she was taking “some well-deserved time off [to] consider future opportunities”.
作爲華爾街最耀眼的女性之一，馬斯特斯離職的消息是摩根大通首席執行官傑米•戴蒙(Jamie Dimon)及投行部門主管丹尼爾•平託(Daniel Pinto)在一份內部備忘錄中宣佈的。Jes Staley, former head of investment banking at JPMorgan and now managing partner at BlueMountain Capital, said: “She is one of the few people that had the courage to defend the derivatives market in the financial crisis and she paid a price for it”.
馬斯特斯18歲時就以實習生身份加入了摩根大通，她離開的原因是另一個她大力扶持的項目——摩根大通大宗商品交易部門——遭遇挫折。馬斯特斯在過去6年裏創建了這一部門，沒想到只能依令將其出售。He added Ms Masters was “one of the most capable bankers that I have worked with”.
該部門創造了數十億美元營收，卻也遭到了監管機構的調查。比如，美國聯邦能源監管委員會(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)曾指控該部門涉嫌操縱加州電力市場，去年摩根大通不得不爲此支付了4.10億美元罰金。對違規指控，該行既未承認也未否認。She is leaving the bank she joined as an 18-year-old intern because of the reversal in fortunes of another project whose growth she championed: JPMorgan’s trading in physical commodities, which Ms Masters built over the past six years only to be told to sell it off.
知情人士稱，由於摩根大通感覺監管機構將會繼續把該部門作爲調查目標，該行決定將該部門出售給總部駐瑞士的交易所摩科瑞(Mercuria)。根據知情人士的說法，馬斯特斯決定不去摩科瑞，不過她並未確定離職後做什麼。The business brought in billions of dollars of revenues but also investigations by regulators, including an allegation of market manipulation in the California power market that led to a $410m penalty last year from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. JPMorgan did not admit or deny a violation.
馬斯特斯將在摩根大通再待幾個月，完成與摩科瑞的資產交接工作。這一35億美元的交易預計將在2014年第三季度達成。屆時私人控股的摩科瑞將與維多(Vitol)、托克(Trafigura)及貢沃爾(Gunvor)一同躋身全球一流大宗商品交易商之列。The sense that regulators would keep targeting the business led to JPMorgan’s decision to sell the business to Mercuria, a Swiss-based trading house, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms Masters has decided not to go to Mercuria, according to one person familiar with the matter, but has not made up her mind what to do next.
馬斯特斯的離職並不令人意外，儘管她過去兩年已經談論過包括資深風險管理崗位在內的其他工作機會。
