BNP Paribas is the latest investment bank to start hiring emerging markets traders

The investment banking fixed income party may well be over, but there’s one place where they continue to hire – emerging markets credit trading.

Yes, this is a bit niche, but investment banks across the City are willing to invest in big hires. The latest is BNP Paribas, which is set to bring in Shokat Khan, a senior emerging markets trader who has spent the last nine months working at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Khan has upgraded, taking a role as a senior emerging markets credit trader focused on the Middle East and North Africa region at BNP Paribas in London. He has previously worked as a managing director in emerging markets trading focused on either MENA or CEEMEA (Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa), leading a team of traders at both Jefferies and Royal Bank of Scotland.

He’s set to join BNP Paribas later this year, according to sources close to the situation.

BNP is the latest investment bank to start building its emerging markets team. In March, it hired Iftikhar Ali, who left his role as chief investment officer at hedge fund Rhodium Capital Management after four years. Before this, he was head of EMEA proprietary trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

BNP Paribas’ emerging markets team has been growing under the leadership of Ali over the past few months and is still hiring. It currently has five traders supported by one graduate recruit and is looking to add at least one other trader in the coming months, sources suggest.

Emerging markets trading is a sector that investment banks continue to hire for. Jefferies is building its EM credit trading team, hiring in Aaron Fernandes from Barclays in New York and Kevin Kelly from Goldman Sachs in London to head up the team.

There’s been a lot of movement in and out of Goldman Sachs’ emerging markets team. Gokhan Buyuksarac, a highly-rated EM trader who left for Nomura in February, Damien McCaughley, who left for Susquehanna International Group and Andy Skraba, who quit for SocGen. Goldman also hired from Cantor Fitzgerald, bringing in its head of emerging markets trading for CEEMEA, Thomas Blondin, as an executive director in May.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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