J.P. Morgan has promoted Pranav Thakur to head of fixed income for emerging Asia. He will take over the role from Tarun Mahrotri, who was also global co-head of emerging markets. Mahrotri is leaving the bank at the end of January to pursue other opportunities.
Thakur was head of trading for North Asia and India until October last year, when the rest of Asia was added to his role. In the new position, he will be responsible for a team that covers 11 markets in the region, across trading, sales and debt capital markets. He will also join the Asia-Pacific executive committee and reports to James Kenny in London, who will become sole head of global emerging markets. Regionally, Thakur reports to Gaby Abdelnour, chairman and CEO for Asia-Pacific.
Mahrotri is said to be leaving the banking industry. He joined J.P. Morgan in 2006 as the head of credit, rates and foreign exchange in Asia before his most recent role.
“A talented risk manager and leader, Tarun was instrumental in developing our Asia emerging markets business exponentially into a market leader in the region,” said Gaby Abdelnour. “Over the last couple of years, he has also played a key role in the development of the firm’s fixed income business across emerging markets globally.”
The move to a single head for the emerging markets business is in keeping with an industry-wide trend of streamlining management as banks adapt to an environment of weaker growth. Kenny, who became co-head last year, will now assume sole responsibility for managing risk across products in Latin America, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Kenny has co-headed the GEM business for the past year and, in his 12 years at the firm, has been an integral part of the growth of its credit and emerging markets businesses.
Thakur joined J.P. Morgan in May 2007 from Barclays Capital, where he ran Southeast Asia trading from 2005. Before that, he worked in HSBC’s fixed income department for almost a decade.
