DJ UPDATE:STREET MOVES: CRT Draws 5 From RBS For Primary Dealer Bid

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Under new leadership, CRT Capital Group has become the latest firm seeking to join the Federal Reserve's coterie of primary dealers, and it's raided RBS Securities to beef up its fixed-income team accordingly.

Broker dealer CRT has hired Marx Bowens from RBS as its new head of Treasury and agency debt, and Jay Moskowitz, who will cover inflation-linked bonds and zero-coupon Treasurys. Bryan Burns will be head of operations. Each has around 20 years of experience at RBS.

In addition, it's hired rates strategists David Ader and Ian Lyngen from RBS for its expanding U.S. interest rates coverage. Ader keeps the job title of head of government bond strategy, and Lyngen goes from being an interest-rate strategist at RBS to a principal in CRT's government strategy group

The five hires are expected to start next month after "short gardening leaves," according to a press release from CRT Tuesday.

Their departure, effective Monday, comes as the high-yield specialist prepares its bid for dealership status, allowing it to trade directly with the central bank. RBS is among the 16 primary dealers, and other aspirants include MF Global Ltd. (MF) and Nomura Securities.

CRT Chairman Benjamin Carpenter told Dow Jones Newswires the firm aims to submit an application to the central bank within six months.

Indeed, Carpenter, who joined RBS in 1987, is the bank's highest-profile defection, along with his fellow former RBS executive Jay Levine. At the start of this month they led an investor group, including the existing management and many employees of CRT, in acquiring a controlling stake in the firm. The new chief executive is former Countrywide Financial Corp. executive managing director Ron Kripalani.

Carpenter said Tuesday CRT's staff will grow from just over 100 employees to over 150 by around the end of the year.

Now in its 20th year, CRT has traditionally focused on sales and trading of high-yield and distressed debt and stocks. Like RBS, it is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

According to CRT's Web site, the new-look company is expanding into new product areas such as Treasurys, structured product including mortgage- and other asset-backed securities, and investment-grade credit. In Tuesday's press release, Carpenter cited CRT's ambition to become "a top five primary dealer."

"We see great opportunities in the U.S. Treasurys market," Carpenter said Tuesday. "Treasurys is the business I grew up in, and the business at (RBS) Greenwich Capital that was my number-one focus for the bulk of my 22 years at the firm," he said.