BNP Paribas hires Hong Kong-based securitisation specialist from Fitch

BNP Paribas has hired Sunny Park as a Hong Kong-based associate director and structured credit research analyst. She is due to start work at the French bank this week, and was previously an analyst in the structured finance division of credit rating agency Fitch Ratings.

“She is an addition to our Asian research staff and an extension of our structured credit research platform in Europe,” said a BNP Paribas official. The official added that Park would provide "value-added research" and produce "quality credit analysis" in co-ordination with the bank's global structured credit research teams. Park will report locally to Andrew Freris, BNP Paribas' chief economist for Asia-Pacific, and globally to Chris Ames, head of structured credit research.

But one banker unrelated to the hire said Park would work closely with BNP Paribas’ securitisation team. She was hired in the credit research team for administrative reasons: BNP Paribas did not have an open headcount for its securitisation team but had an opening in its research team headcount, according to the banker, who said such procedures were common practice. BNP Paribas’ securitisation team is currently four-people strong.

Separately, the bank said Albert Hofman, head of fixed income and credit research for Asia, has left for personal reasons. “Andrew Freris will assume temporary responsibility for credit research in addition to his responsibilities as chief economist for Asia-Pacific,” the BNP Paribas official said.