Bank's new sterling bond traders

THE franc, mark and peseta may be long gone but sterling's dogged refusal to roll over and die has brought a silver lining to the storm clouds hanging over the City - for one group of professionals at least.

Sterling bond traders are in demand even in these grim times as Gordon Brown's refusal to name the day for euro entry - repeated again last night in his Mansion House speech - means the market will live on much longer than expected a few years ago.

One of the biggest players in the market, investment bank JP Morgan, today announced it has hired three senior sterling bond specialists to boost its team because of the delay in Euro entry.

'It makes sense for JP Morgan to further strengthen its sterling business,' said Tim Frost, head of JP Morgan's European credit business. 'We believe the sterling market is important in its own right and will continue to play a key role in the ongoing development of the European credit market as a whole.' The bank has also bolstered its sterling team with a number of internal appointments.

The sterling corporate bond market has been in rude health this year with a lack of new issues pushing prices higher at a time of strong demand from investors. So far this year about only £10bn of sterling corporate bonds have been sold, well down on the same period last year. The market has also been boosted by the relatively strong state of the UK economy compared with many in the eurozone.