Switzerland’s Vontobel is setting up a newly-created business area - Financial Products Multi-Issuer Platform - which will be headed by Gerhard Meier, who was previously responsible for UBS’ equity investor platform.

Vontobel’s multi-issuer platform deritrade has rapidly become established in the market. Last month the firm said that its deritrade platform attracted some 4000 professional investors in Europe and Asia, with assets under management totalling in excess of SFr1,000 billion.

Recently, Morgan Stanley became the latest major player in the sector to join deritrade, following on from Société Génerale, the firm said in a statement.

Additionally, Gerhard Meier will be taking on a managerial role in Vontobel’s new platform management business, with effect from 1 November 2013.

Meier was previously head equity structured products at UBS Wealth Management. In addition to this, from 2000 he was responsible for the development of UBS keyinvest, and its evolution into UBS equity investor. Before joining UBS, Meier served at EBS, a global FX trading platform.