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Now, the French-born JPMorgan trader has been dragged from the anonymity of the trading floor into the eye of a very public storm over a $2 billion trading loss at the U.S. investment bank where Iksil worked in a little-known group called the Chief Investment Office (CIO).
Friends, colleagues and fellow traders describe an unassuming man, a far cry from the brash image normally associated with traders staking huge bets in fast-moving financial markets, including derivatives.
"He's a really nice bloke. A quiet bloke. He's not an arrogant trader, he's quite the opposite. He's very charming," one former colleague at JPMorgan said of Iksil, whom he said was married with "a couple of kids".
Iksil, who graduated in engineering in 1991 from the Ecole Centrale in Paris, looks older than he is, seldom wears a suit, and according to ex-colleagues lives outside central London.
"He's a balding chap with grey and dark hair. I'd say he's in his 40s," the ex-colleague said, adding that there were not many young traders in CIO, a relatively isolated group where everybody was in their thirties and forties.
"Nobody wears suits in CIO. You don't meet clients face to face," he added.
There have been no suggestions that Iksil's activities were in any way irregular, but over a period of years he and his team amassed a book of bets estimated by some to be $100 billion.
LONDON/PARIS |
(Reuters) - Bruno Iksil was dubbed the 'London Whale' in credit markets
due to the size of the trading positions he took, but for years he
stayed well below the surface avoiding detection.Now, the French-born JPMorgan trader has been dragged from the anonymity of the trading floor into the eye of a very public storm over a $2 billion trading loss at the U.S. investment bank where Iksil worked in a little-known group called the Chief Investment Office (CIO).
Friends, colleagues and fellow traders describe an unassuming man, a far cry from the brash image normally associated with traders staking huge bets in fast-moving financial markets, including derivatives.
"He's a really nice bloke. A quiet bloke. He's not an arrogant trader, he's quite the opposite. He's very charming," one former colleague at JPMorgan said of Iksil, whom he said was married with "a couple of kids".
Iksil, who graduated in engineering in 1991 from the Ecole Centrale in Paris, looks older than he is, seldom wears a suit, and according to ex-colleagues lives outside central London.
"He's a balding chap with grey and dark hair. I'd say he's in his 40s," the ex-colleague said, adding that there were not many young traders in CIO, a relatively isolated group where everybody was in their thirties and forties.
"Nobody wears suits in CIO. You don't meet clients face to face," he added.
There have been no suggestions that Iksil's activities were in any way irregular, but over a period of years he and his team amassed a book of bets estimated by some to be $100 billion.
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