UBS hires bankers in fixed income - memo

ZURICH/LONDON Aug 11 (Reuters) - UBS (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) has hired more than 20 bankers for its fixed income business as it strives to get its investment bank back on track after heavy losses in the credit crisis.

Dimitri Psyllidis, a former Merrill Lynch (BAC.N) banker, is becoming global head of Macro, the bank said in an internal memo this week, and will report to new investment bank co-head Carsten Kengeter and to Jeffrey Mayer.

"It is clear from the number, breadth and calibre of these appointments that FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) continues to attract high quality talent," the bank said in the memo, obtained by Reuters.

UBS confirmed the document was authentic and that all hires had taken place in the last couple of weeks.

The bank's new Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel -- who formerly headed arch-rival Credit suisse (CSGN.VX) -- in April replaced investment bank head Jerker Johansson, who had been in the role for just a year, by Kengeter and Alex Wilmot-Sitwell as co-heads. The two joined from Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

UBS, which runs a global investment bank but has lost its long-held spot as the world's largest wealth manager, said it added Chris Murphy to Yvan Ducrot's CCT (cash and collateral trading) and rates trading team.

It said it had poached Bobby Gerjarusak from Goldman to head FICC Structuring in the Asia and Pacific region and Rajeev Misra -- previously at Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) -- as its new co-head in emerging markets.

In its credit business, it hired Anatoly Nakum to head investment grade trading and Nahil Bayrasli in its flow CDS business, both from Barclays (BARC.L).

It had also made a raft of other hires in FICC distribution, including Andrew Crowston and Pablo Terpolilli in leveraged finance sales, both previously at Goldman.

UBS is seeking a return to profitability after writedowns of more than $50 billion and has exited its municipal bonds, structured debt and proprietary trading businesses, as well as most of its commodities activities.