People moves: UBS nabs Barclays’ former Asia equity head

Plus: new equity head for HSBC; ANZ adds rates strategist; Jones leaves LME; and others

Photo of Hong Kong IFC building
UBS has offices in the IFC Towers in Hong Kong

Plus: new equity head for HSBC; ANZ adds rates strategist; Jones leaves LME; and others

The former head of Barclays’ Asia equity business, Vikesh Kotecha, is to switch across to UBS in Hong Kong where he will head up the Swiss bank’s equity derivatives unit. Kotecha has run Barclays’ Asia equity team since 2010 but it was effectively shuttered in January last year as part of a restructuring. Kotecha will report to Dushyant Chadha, global head of equity derivatives, and Taichi Takahashi who heads up equities in the region.

UBS has also recruited Stephane Petermann, Societe Generale’s Hong Kong-based head of equity volatility trading, who will perform the same role at the Swiss bank. Hirofumi Takaku, who currently runs the firm’s Japan equity business, will relocate to Hong Kong where he will become head of equity derivatives structured sales in Asia-Pacific.

The retreat of both RBS and Barclays from Asia’s equity derivatives market, and the scale-back of another former European powerhouse Deutsche Bank, has left a surfeit of experienced structures and traders. One senior equity derivatives executive in Hong Kong told Risk.net the quality of CVs his bank was receiving is so high his firm was taking this opportunity to offload poorer performers.


HSBC has named Hossein Zaimi as its new global head of equities. He replaces Patrick George, who became global head of equities in 2008 and later took charge of global markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Zaimi joined the bank in 2004 as head of foreign exchange derivatives, Apac. In 2009, he became head of forex and commodities for the same region, and was made regional head of trading for global markets in 2014.

Zaimi will be based in Hong Kong and report to Thibaut de Roux, head of global markets, and Gordon French, head of global banking and markets, Apac.


Jennifer Kusuma has left her role at BNP Paribas to join Australia’s ANZ, where she has been appointed senior Asia rates strategist. Kusuma had served as forex and interest rates strategist with emphasis on South-east Asian markets at the French bank. Serving under ANZ’s head of Asia research, Khoon Goh, Kusuma will take on a similar focus in her new role.

Concentrating primarily on Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, Kusuma will be responsible for providing analysis, formulating strategies and executable trade ideas in fixed-income markets. She will be based in Singapore.


Garry Jones - London Metal Exchange
Garry Jones

Garry Jones has stepped down from his position as chief executive of the London Metal Exchange. He has also resigned from his positions as executive director of the LME and LME Clear. Jones became the LME’s chief executive in 2012 following the purchase of the exchange by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx). He also oversaw the company’s modernisation programme and attempts to break into the Chinese market – so far without major success; LME’s plans to operate warehouses in China were stymied by local regulators.

A much-touted commodity derivatives extension to the Shanghai Connect was also quashed by Chinese authorities, which are keen to protect and develop the domestic commodity derivatives market. Likewise attempts to capture Chinese investor activity with the launch of RMB-denominated mini base metal contracts at the start of 2015 failed to gain meaningful volumes.

Matthew Chamberlain, named chief operating officer in December, will replace Jones as interim CEO. At 34, Chamberlain is the youngest head of a major exchange globally.


The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has appointed Stefan Gannon, formerly its general counsel, to lead the central bank’s new resolution office. The office will establish resolution policy standards for banks, define resolution strategies and conduct resolvability assessments of banks, work with banks to remove impediments to their orderly resolution, and develop the operational capability necessary to execute orderly resolution, the HKMA said.

Karen Kemp takes over from Gannon as general counsel. She joined the central bank in 1995 from legal firm Lovells. Kemp served as deputy general counsel before moving to her current position of executive director for banking policy. She will transfer to her new position on April 7.

Kemp will be replaced by Daryl Ho, the HKMA’s division head for financial stability surveillance. Ho joined the central bank in 2001 and has worked in a variety of departments including research, market development and monetary operations.


Regulatory reporting and risk management solutions provider AxiomSL has appointed Andrew Wood as its new country manager for Australia.

Based in Sydney, Wood was most recently a consultant at litigation funding firm IMF Bentham, prior to which he was an associate director and senior project manager for technology and operational risk at Macquarie, and before that was director and head of the “Change the Bank” project for Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific finance group.


Torstone Technology, the London-based provider of post-trade securities and derivatives processing, has appointed Takuro Ochiai from Daiwa Capital Markets Europe and Hong Kong to lead its Japan office. Gordon Russell, head of sales, Asia-Pacific, has been named head of Asia-Pacific. The firm has also transferred senior staff in the region to the Japan office to provide local support.

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