Barclays Capital
| Romeo Uyan |
This emerging player in Asia has been expanding its presence in the last few years under Romeo Uyan, head of Asian credit products in Singapore. It is renowned for pushing into esoteric CDO structures. For instance, end users gave particular note this year to its commodity-default swap portfolios which employ CDO technology.
Citigroup
This U.S. house has been gaining ground in the region, especially for structured credit. "Citi's done a good job building up [its] CDO business," commented a rival credit head. It has built up a solid reputation in particular for emerging-market synthetic collateralized debt obligations over the course of this year.
Deutsche Bank
End users laud Deutsche Bank's strong credit structuring capabilities in the region, highlighting such deals as private financing structures incorporating total-return swaps in recent months. The firm is also a hot favorite with investors because of its wide-ranging CDO offering.
JPMorgan
Established credit heavyweight JPMorgan was given the nod mostly for its strong trading capabilities in credit-default swaps and more exotic credit instruments including callable CDOs, rather than for its structuring expertise. "They're always pushing good ideas that are priced well," said an investor in Korea.
Lehman Brothers
Peers singled out Lehman for its drive into retail credit products in Hong Kong and more recently Singapore, which is being overseen by Leon Hindle, senior v.p. in structured credit in Hong Kong. "They've managed to bring a first-to-default-type trade to retail in Southeast Asia," said a credit structurer at a rival bulge bracket house, explaining this was the first deal of its kind for retail, which launched in recent months.
