Deutsche Börse star quits for Deka

Beck, who has worked at the German stock exchange for eight years, resigned in June but stayed on to complete the integration of Clearstream. He will join Deka Bank in January 2003.

"Capital markets is such a big area. There's so much out there that I'm not familiar with yet. After eight years, many things repeat themselves and I wanted the opportunity to learn new things," said Beck.

He leads a legal department of 24, split between legal and compliance, and investment funds-related business. Beck told The Lawyer that Deka Bank offers him the opportunity to work in new areas such as investment funds, asset management, general credit, initial public offerings and to work in the capital markets as a market participant.

Beck has watched Deutsche Börse change dramatically. In the past three years, the organisation has grown from 800 people to 3,000, it has subsidiaries abroad, foreign businesses are playing a much bigger role in Germany and the legal department has doubled in size to 46 people.

Beck said: "Given the current market conditions, where many banks are suffering, it was difficult to decide on the move, but general counsel positions are not that numerous and Deka has a good reputation and an interesting business."