JPMorgan & BofA lost senior credit traders amidst crazy moves in Asia

There may be complaints about tepid hiring in investment banking roles in London and New York, but there are no such complaints when it comes to the hiring of credit traders and salespeople in Asia. There, the year has started with an explosive bang.

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"The market is in full rebuild mode," says one senior credit trader in the region. "The revenue opportunities have shrunk, but there are pockets of market share to be won. Everyone is going after them, and it's playing out in Hong Kong."

A list circulating around traders and headhunters details over 30 hires and credit moves in Hong Kong and Singapore from late December to February. There have been more since, including senior exits at both JPMorgan and Bank of America. 

The recent exits at JPMorgan include Sudhir Goel, the bank's head of sales and marketing and platform services for APAC and its chief executive officer of Southeast Asia. Goel is understood to have resigned in recent days. His departure for an unknown destination follows that of numerous other JPMorgan MDs, including Anand Goyal, the head of FX sales for financial institutions, who joined Citi in January after leaving last September. JPMorgan declined to comment.

Bank of America's recent leaks are rumoured to include Justin Yang, its head of Asian credit sales and David Hirst, a managing director focused on overnight US investment grade credit trading. Bank of America didn't confirm the exits.

We've reported some of the 30 previous Asian credit moves already. They include the ANZ team who are joining Standard Chartered, Jeff Leung, the head of flow credit trading for greater China at BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, who's gone to Goldman Sachs and Redha Achour, the head of investment grade credit trading for APAC at RBC Capital Markets, who's gone to Citadel Securities. George Sun also left BNP for HSBC as head of debt markets in Asia. 

Other names not yet reported are: Kody Hayes (Barclays to UBS), William Cai (CLSA to Credit Agricole), Leonard Gao (UBS to Amstel) and the retirement of Una Lee (head of credit sales at HSBC). 

More moves are expected as recent hires settle in new positions. The insertion of the ANZ team is already thought to have triggered departures at Standard Chartered. Niraj Athavle at JPMorgan is on gardening leave and expected to join a new employer, soon.

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