Bear Stearns last Thursday hired Raymond Wong, managing director in global equity markets at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, in a new senior role as head of fixed income trading in Tokyo. "The chance to hire someone like Ray doesn't come around very often--we couldn't pass this up," said Lenny Feder, head of trading in Tokyo, to whom Wong now reports. Feder said the strategic hire comes on the back of the firm's build up in Japan which gained momentum last year (DW, 3/31/02). "I'm very excited with this new role," said Wong. Prior to joining Merrill, he had worked in fixed income derivatives trading at Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Wong declined further comment.
A former colleague said Wong is a good product manager and built a great reputation on starting the Hong Kong warrant business for BT in the early 90s. He added that as Merrill is moving staff from Tokyo to Hong Kong (DW 1/19), Wong likely jumped ship to remain in Japan. In addition, as Bear Stearns is a smaller operation there will be less politics and more autonomy.
"Good for Ray," said an equity derivatives head at a bulge bracket firm in Hong Kong, noting that Wong was well known in the market for his years at Merrill and Bankers Trust in Hong Kong before relocating to Tokyo last year (DW, 2/10/02).
At Merrill, Wong reported to Chris Dunn, head of Japan equity in Tokyo, who declined comment.
