HSBC last Monday transferred Jerome Ferracci, head of equity derivatives in Paris, to Hong Kong to run its Asian business. "We're going to expand rapidly throughout all of Asia, including Japan," said Ferracci. He continued that following a restructuring of its global equity derivatives business in Europe earlier this year (DW, 2/8/04), the firm is now revamping its Asian business, where HSBC has its largest client base. The bank launched an equity derivatives desk last year in Hong Kong, led by a couple of transfers from Paris (DW, 2/15/04). It is now preparing to widen its business scope beyond equity products in Hong Kong and Taiwan to additional markets. For the effort Ferracci said the bank intends to bring on additional staff. "We're starting to recruit actively to increase the local businesses," he noted.
In Europe, Ferracci said the firm split its global equity unit into three groups: structuring, linear trading, and delta-one products. He declined further comment on the reorganization and his replacement in Paris.
