A Morgan Stanley trader is leaving the firm after racking up tens of millions of dollars in losses as a bout of market turmoil makes and breaks trading books across Wall Street.
Hamza El Hassani, who traded dividends in the New York-based bank’s equities division, will be departing after transactions he oversaw went awry, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The losses tied to him were less than $50 million, one of the people said.
El Hassani didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, and a representative for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rocked global markets and spiraled across asset classes, catching some traders off guard and testing their hedges. An onslaught of international sanctions has severed correlations between a number of products that normally move in sync, derailing bets that were otherwise seen as safe. Heavy losses aren’t unusual in such trading conditions and they don’t always prompt separations from firms.
