Commerzbank Securities has hired Jean-Paul Ansel from HSBC Investment Bank as its head of French origination for M&A and equity capital markets. His recruitment signals a more determined strategy of building up the bank's new M&A department after a hiatus in recruitment during the aborted merger negotiations with Dresdner Bank.

Ansel is the first senior recruit in M&A since Simon Hirst and James Williams were lured away from ABN Amro in April. An experienced and, many say, gifted banker, Ansel was a managing director in international corporate finance and head of French coverage at HSBC.