Credit Suisse expands commodities/energy staff

LONDON (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) is hiring 8 new staff in an expansion of its commodities and energy business, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.

The bank has been building up its commodities activities in a partnership with physical commodity trading group Glencore that was set up in early 2006.

The new hires are across a range of commodities including index products, oil, metals and power.

A number of banks are still expanding in commodities because of a price boom and increasing demand for commodity related risk management products.

But some firms have cut back in the wake of the credit market crisis.

The Credit Suisse hires are as follows.

Jrme Drouin is joining the Swiss investment bank as head of commodity index products, based in London.

He joins the bank from Swiss rival UBS (UBSN.VX), where he was most recently global head of commodity index products. He helped to establish UBS's commodity index business and looked after the launch of three commodity indices.

The bank has hired 4 people for its oil trading business.

These are Ed Solari and Chetan Shah, who are joining as oil product traders in London.

Solari was previously at JP Morgan Chase (JPM.N), where he spent two years as a proprietary crude oil trader.

Shah joins as a vice president from Citigroup (C.N) where he was his trading responsibilities included crude, distillates, fuel oil and gasoline.

Stephanie Duranel is joining as a director and oil options trader in London. She joins from Bank of America (BAC.N) where she was, most recently, head trader on the base metal options desk.

Steven Clark is joining the firm as an oil marketer, based in London. He joins from Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) where he spent seven years, most recently as a director in energy sales and marketing.

Credit Suisse is also boosting its metals trading team with 3 new hires.

Tieerd Konst and Alistair Munro are joining as metals marketers, based in London.