JPMorgan has established an onshore credit-trading desk in Australia and transferred David Hawkins, credit trader in Tokyo, to Sydney to spearhead the effort. Previously the U.S. house traded Australian credit-default swaps out of Tokyo, but is now establishing the desk to place traders closer to the marketing and credit structuring staff already in place. Hawkins was out of the office and could not be reached and Chris Nicholas, co-head of fixed income sales and trading in Hong Kong, did not return messages.
Other bulge-bracket players that have onshore credit desks in Australia include Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
