Global securities and investment banking group, Jefferies, is bumping up its securitization operations by hiring a global co-head of collateralized loan obligation (CLO) and collateralized debt obligation (CDO) trading. Recent hire Erez Biala will partner with fellow co-head Sharif Anbar-Colas, within the broader Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities (MBS/ABS) Group. “We continue to build out Jefferies’ asset-backed trading effort globally, and Erez’s knowledge, experience and relationships in trading CLOs and CDOs will make an immediate contribution to the firm’s leading platform,” said Johan Eveland and William H. Jennings II, Co-Heads of the Global MBS/ABS Group at Jefferies in a joint statement. Biala joins the firm from Barclays Capital, where he traded in distressed products. He also was CDO trader and originator for five years at Lehman Brothers. Prior to that, he worked CDO originations at Morgan Stanley. The firm’s MBS/ABS Group, part of the Fixed Income Division at Jefferies, now includes approximately 100 sales, trading and origination professionals in the US, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Write to Jacob Gaffney.