Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank that bought UK banking and asset management group Singer & Friedlander, has hired Hugh McAlister, co-head of pan-European cash equities trading at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, as part of its expansion strategy in UK capital markets.

McAlister, who resigned from DrKW last week after 11 years with the German investment bank, will join Kaupthing as head of UK trading after a period of gardening leave.