Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank has joined the list of banks bulking up their Asia ex-Japan fixed-income businesses, with the announcement yesterday that it has hired five bond origination, sales, trading and research specialists. The new hires all have several years of experience within the region at various banks, and are based in Hong Kong. All five were recruited from outside the bank, and have already started.
Jackson Lum has been made executive director of debt capital markets origination for the region. A 15-year leveraged finance and high-yield veteran, he reports to Swaroop Patel, head of debt and credit markets for Asia ex-Japan. Previously, Lum worked at Bank of America as a principal of the leveraged finance group in Hong Kong, and prior to that, he worked in New York with Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale.
Allen Sheals has been appointed director for commodities sales in Asia and reports to Mark Greenleaf, regional head of commodities for Asia. Sheals has over 11 years' experience in commodities sales and structuring in Asia, most recently at UBS in Singapore. He has also spent time at Merrill Lynch and Citibank.
Daniel Polidano has come on board as a director and senior FX options trader for Asia and reports to Steve Chan, head of FX options trading in the region. Polidano has been in the business for more than 14 years, most recently at Barclays Capital in Singapore. Several years at UBS and ANZ also figure on his CV.
Frances Cheung has been hired as a director and senior strategist for fixed-income markets research for Asia ex-Japan and reports to Sebastien Barbe, who is head of emerging market research and strategy. She joins from Standard Chartered, and was earlier a Greater China economist at Primasia Securities.
Finally, Ji Young Kim has been poached from Tradition (Asia), to become vice-president for flow credit sales, reporting to Pascal Petri, head of flow sales for Asia ex-Japan.
The French bank's fixed-income operation has five liquidity centres in London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Teams are organised around five specialised business lines -- foreign exchange, interest rate derivatives, debt and credit markets, commodities, and treasury.
A spokesperson said yesterday that Credit Agricole's fixed-income markets team in Asia ex-Japan "is sufficient to cover (its) current client flows" but added that the bank is "looking forward to growing it further".
