Merrill Lynch has hired Sowen Ng, executive director at Morgan Stanley, as a managing director for the Hong Kong global fx sales desk. Rig Karkhanis, managing director and head of fx and local currency trading at Merrill, said Ng is a replacement for Wu Yue, director, who recently joined Barclays Capital in a senior sales capacity (DW, 4/7). He added a few additional sales and trading hires are in the works for the newly-minted fx desk. "The region is booming--we're seeing a major increase in particular in fx and rates," said Karkhanis, adding that growth is being driven by corporate accounts and global hedge funds.
Merrill established an fx derivatives desk in Hong Kong at the onset of the year and has been shifting staff from Tokyo as well as hiring marketers and traders to tap the growing activity in the region (DW, 1/27). Pauling Cheung, spokeswoman at Morgan Stanley, did not return calls by press time.
