Morgan Stanley has suffered a big loss to its European credit derivatives business with the departure of Lex Maldutis, one of the firm's star traders. Maldutis quit late last week to move to rival Credit Suisse First Boston.

Sources said that Morgan Stanley was so keen to keep Maldutis, still in his 20s and at vice-president level, that they offered him $1.5m (€1.65m) to stay.