Merrill Lynch has hired Joonkee Hong, global head of emerging market derivatives at UBS in Stamford, Conn., as head of debt markets for Korea, based in Hong Kong.
Hong will be responsible for offshore Korean fixed income and equity derivative sales, filling a role that was vacated last year when H.H. Choi was promoted to head of global markets and investment banking in Seoul, according to a Merrill insider. Hong, who starts next month, could not be reached.
Hong wanted to return to Asia for family reasons but had been unable to find a suitable role in the region with UBS and therefore opted to leave the firm, according to a UBS banker.
"He's well-respected," said one market official, noting that Hong built up UBS' Asian fixed income derivatives business before leaving the region to replicate the platform in Latin America and emerging Europe (DW, 2/4/02).
At Merrill Hong will report to Antony Hung, head of Asia Pacific debt markets and Choi in Seoul. Choi declined comment.
