Citadel exec Peter Santoro leaves firm

Peter Santoro, head of institutional markets at Citadel Investment Group LLC’s investment banking arm, has left the firm.

Changes within the firm’s executive ranks signal a new emphasis on credit trading at Citadel Securities. Two months ago the company’s investment banking unit chief, Rohit D’Souza, departed and CEO Kenneth Griffin replaced him with Patrick Edsparr. Mr. Edsparr had been the hedge fund’s global head of fixed income.

Mr. Santoro’s departure, reported earlier Wednesday by Bloomberg News, was confirmed by a Citadel spokeswoman.

Chris Boas, who headed structured credit trading at Citadel’s hedge fund unit, will be Citadel Securities’ new global head of credit markets, a function that formerly fell under Mr. Santoro’s writ. Ravi Mattu, a fixed-income researcher with the hedge fund side of Citadel’s business, has been named as the investment bank’s new global head of research.

Mr. Santoro joined Citadel last year from Citigroup Inc., where he had been global head of equity trading.

Citadel’s hedge funds have $13 billion under management, and the firm has been building a footprint in investment banking. In the past two months it has helped underwrite more than $1 billion in corporate debt.

This story first ran in Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication of Investment News