Hedge fund Citadel hires another JPMorgan banker

BOSTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Citadel Investment Group said on Wednesday that it hired another JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) banker to run a key business, marking the second time in two months the hedge fund has wooed a top executive from the Wall Street bank.

Derek Kaufman will join Citadel to run the $20 billion hedge fund's U.S. fixed income business, the firm said. Kaufman, who like Citadel's founder Ken Griffin graduated from Harvard, ran Global Fixed Income in JPMorgan Chase's Proprietary Positioning Group. He joined JPMorgan 12 years ago and was one of the earliest members of the Proprietary Positioning Group.

In March, Citadel said Patrik Edsparr, former head of fixed income at JPMorgan Chase, would join this summer to run the hedge fund's European division.

Hedge funds have long been attractive places to work for former bankers because the compensation is often better, since hedge funds managers earn hefty compensation fees on top of management fees.

The pull may be even stronger now that many hedge funds are considered to be financially sounder than many large banks that face problems from the credit crisis. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)