BNP Paribas last week moved decisively to stem the flow of defections from its troubled fixed income group when it re-hired David Ovenden less than a week after the former head of European syndicate quit the bank to join former colleagues at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

Ovenden will effectively replace Andrew Pisker, who left the bank last month to rebuild DrKB's debts business, itself ravaged by a stream of high-profile departures. He will run the bank's entire bonds effort, including the much-respected securitisation group.