Brown Brothers Harriman announced that it has opened a new FX desk in Hong Kong, offering access to a full array of 24-hour foreign exchange trading services in conjunction with New York, London and Tokyo locations. The Hong Kong desk is headed by Chris Gothard and Thomas Haimelin.
“This is an exciting time for foreign exchange in Asia,” said Andrew Tucker, a partner responsible for Asia and BBH’s global foreign exchange product. “Over the past three years BBH has seen a compound annual growth rate of 38% in customer volume in the region with 2010 showing a record 68% growth in FX volume. We felt the time was right to establish a new FX desk in Hong Kong to better service our growing local client base.”
BBH also added to its team covering Japan and Asia, with Noriyuki Kato joining the relationship management and sales team in Tokyo as Head of FX for Asia, reporting to Henry Wilkes, global head of FX relationship management and sales. Kato joins BBH with more than 25 years of experience. Previously he was at DIAM Asset Management as head of institutional sales, and State Street Bank & Trust in Tokyo as head of foreign exchange sales and treasury operations.
Masashi Murata joined the global currency strategy team in Tokyo, providing regional and emerging market coverage. Previously Murata held the role of chief economist at GCI Capital and economist at Mitsubishi UFJ, and is well known in the Japanese financial media regularly appearing on CNBC.
Ilan Solot recently joined the global currency strategy team in London, also providing emerging market currency analysis. Solot spent three years at the foreign exchange trading desk of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before joining the EM strategy team at Medley Global Advisor.
Murata and Solot report to Win Thin, global head of emerging markets currency strategy.
BBH said that globally the foreign exchange group has experienced a compound annual growth rate of 31% in global customer volume during the past six years while the 2010 annual rate was 35%3.
