Societe Generale has hired Nicholas Stephens and Greg Holley, two of the most senior futures brokers from Jefferies Bache, marking the latest brokers to move to the French bank from the defunct commodities firm.

Stephens and Holley joined SG as managing directors last month, according to sources, and are among the 22 former Bache staffers set to transfer to the French futures giant from Bache.

Stephens is now SG’s head of sales and marketing for futures and options and Holley is running the French bank’s London-based futures execution desk.

A spokesman for Societe Generale declined to comment.

The hires are a coup for SG as Stephens and Holley were two of the most senior brokers at Bache and they should strengthen SG’s firepower at a time some of their main large rivals are losing senior staff.

Stephens and Holley both have previous with Societe Generale.

Stephens was the head of futures and head of exchange-traded sales and marketing at Bache Commodities having joined the firm in early 2003 from Citigroup.

Before Citi, Stephens was for eight years the London head of financial futures and options at Credit Lyonnais Rouse, which became in 2008 part of Newedge, which is now owned by SG.

Holley was Bache’s managing director, head of financial futures and options execution, a role he held for over four years since joining Bache from Newedge.

Holley joined Cube Financial in early 2004 and worked there until that firm was bought by Societe Generale’s Fimat in late 2006 and then merged in early 2008 with Calyon to form Newedge, where Holley worked until he left for Bache in mid-2011.

Stephens and Holley are the highest profile Bache brokers to have made the step to SG so far following an agreement signed between the firms in April that would see the French bank take some Bache clients and staff.

Most of the Bache staff in London and the US were put at risk of redundancy in April immediately after the SG deal was struck, as first reported by FOW.

Brokerage firms including ED&F Man,  Macquarie,  Sucden Financial,  INTL FC Stone,  ADM Investor Services,  Wells Fargo and  Scotia Bank  are among the firms that have hired former Bache brokers, as first reported by FOW.

SG's hiring is at odds with some other large futures banks that have lost senior staff this year, particularly on the clearing side.

Last month Nomura’s global product head of derivatives clearing Mark Croxon left that bank, as first reported by FOW, and UBS parted company last month with Helen Lofthouse, its European head of exchange-traded derivatives clearing sales, as first reported by FOW.

JP Morgan parted company last month with Niamh Lane, its former head of European derivatives clearing solutions, and in May Hester Serafini, the bank’s former European head of swaps clearing, as first reported by FOW.

Gavin Dixon, the former European head of derivatives clearing at BNP Paribas and chairman of swaps clearing consortium OTCDerivNet, left those posts in May.