UBS has hired Masahiro Sekino, managing director in credit sales at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, for a new role as head of structured credit products in Tokyo. Sekino is well-known as a star producer in Japan and built his reputation at Morgan Stanley before joining Merrill last year (DW, 5/26/02), according to rival credit professionals.
At UBS Sekino will focus on distribution for several credit products including synthetic collateralized debt obligations. He now reports to Sharon Mitchell, Asia-Pacific head of fixed income, rates and currencies in Sydney. "Globally we're a top-tier firm but we've been second-tier and underperforming our own platform in Japan. This is the first step in correcting that," said Mitchell. Sekino, who starts later this month, could not be reached.
At Merrill, he reported toMasakuzu Murayama, vice-chairman of debt markets in Tokyo. Murayama was on vacation and could not be reached by press time.
