Mizuho has hired Scott Paul to head the pan-Asian fixed-income sales team within its securities business.
Paul will be based in Hong Kong and joins the Japanese bank from Credit Agricole, where he was head of sales for Asia. He will report locally into Seiichiro Miyaoka, head of the Asian securities business, and globally into Hiroshi Yoshizawa, Mizuho’s global head of pan-Asian fixed income.
“Mizuho aims to be the top financial group in Asia, and becoming one of the top houses in the Asian bond markets is an important part of this strategy,” said Miyaoka, who added that Paul would focus on building relationships, both with clients in Asia and internally within Mizuho’s global fixed-income business.
The bank added that it has spent the past 12 months strengthening its position in Asian investment-grade and high-yield credits.
As part of its expansion, Mizuho appointed a new executive team for the Asian securities business in April, when Kentaro Akashi became chairman and Miyaoka became president and chief executive officer. At the same time, the bank also appointed Paul Andersson as Asia ex-Japan head of equities in Hong Kong.
Mizuho, like many of its Japanese peers, is expanding in Asia as it searches for opportunities to deploy its huge balance sheet. Under the influence of Abenomics, the signature economic policy of prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s central bank has committed to quantitative easing as part of a strategy to hit a 2% inflation target, flooding the banking system with liquidity. Much of that is now finding its way into Asia.
Indeed, Japanese banks have recently re-emerged as the world’s biggest international lenders. At the end of 2013, they had outstanding international claims of $2.531 trillion, up from $1.836 trillion at the end of 2009, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
