Following HSBC’s first foray into the competitive arena of prime broking when its prime services unit went live in Hong Kong last week, t
Following HSBC’s first foray into the competitive arena of prime broking when its prime services unit went live in Hong Kong last week, the banking giant has moved swiftly by hiring six trading, sales and client relations from rivals reported Financial News this week. The new division will provide both prime brokerage and custody service support to hedge funds. Joining as head of client service and integration is ex-Goldman’s Laurence Denvir. Reporting to Denvir will be Mylene Pelandre, previously at BAML, and Richard Rouse, previously at Credit Suisse. Ex-UBS executive Darrin Wong has joined the sales team along with ex-Nomura executive Adam York, who will lead equity finance Delta One sales. Kara Byun, formerly at Maple Leaf Capital, is to head up convertible bond trading in the region. “We spent 2010 building the infrastructure in Europe and onboarding clients, now we are able to deliver the product into Asia using the European platform in real-time,” commented Cian Burke, head of prime services and co-head of HSBC Securities Services. He added that the team would be focusing on Asian hedge funds but are receiving “considerable interest” from large US hedgies training their sights on Asian opportunities.
