Confident HSBC expands prime services team in Asia-Pacific
Three more directors hired as bank pushes hedge fund servicesin Asia-Pacific region
HSBC Holdings, Europe's largest bank, hired three directors for its Asia-Pacific prime services team in the past two months, undeterred by a shrinking market hit by the European debt crisis and global economic slowdown.
The new hires brought the size of the team to 40. The bank is angling to "be comfortably inside the top 10" prime brokers in the region in the next six to 12 months, according to Melvyn Ford, the Asia-Pacific head of the business since May.
Asian hedge fund assets fell 9 per cent to US$137 billion in the past year, with many managers struggling to perform and some choosing to close, according to a survey by trade journal AsiaHedge. Other US and European banks have become more selective in hiring and taking on clients under their own capital constraints.
HSBC hired Jean-Paul Linschoten, from UBS, and Adrian Harrison, the former head of investor relations at hedge fund Keywise Capital Management (HK), as directors of prime services sales.
David Streatfield joined from Deutsche Bank as a director of equity finance delta one sales at the London-based bank.
Delta one services allow hedge funds to invest in markets of certain assets through derivatives that replicate the performances of those assets.