Thain plans hiring in Merrill trading -Bloomberg

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co's (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) incoming chief executive, John Thain, said declining values in the mortgage-securities market may create "great opportunities" and the bank plans to hire senior managers to boost its trading division, according to a Bloomberg article on Thursday.

"On the sales and trading side, we probably are going to add some senior management to help," Thain said in an interview with the news service. "There is plenty of talent on Wall Street right now, and I'm already getting plenty of resumes."

Thain, now head of NYSE Euronext (NYX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), takes the helm at Merrill on Dec. 1, replacing Stan O'Neal, who was ousted as CEO after the company reported a $2.3 billion third-quarter loss.

Under O'Neal, Merrill became the biggest underwriter of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), a security whose prices have tumbled because many were tied to subprime mortgages. The firm was left holding $15.2 billion of unhedged CDOs as of Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg.

Before accepting the job, Thain examined the firm's mortgage portfolio and Merrill was "completely open" in allowing the review, he told Bloomberg.

"There's still downward pressure in the CDO market and in the subprime market," he was quoted as saying. "That will present opportunities probably over the next six to 12 months."

Thain said one of his top priorities will be to address how Merrill awards bonuses to its employees. "You have to pay the people who are doing well, and you can't penalize them because of the problems in one particular area," he told Bloomberg. (Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Braden Reddall)