Merrill Lynch has hired two fixed-income marketing specialists from Morgan Stanley for its structured products and credit derivatives, according to the new recruits. Masahiro Sekino and Chikara Tanaka, of the fixed-income sales group at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, joined three weeks ago. Sekino has joined as a managing director but said his exact role and reporting line are still being determined, declining to elaborate. Tanaka said he has joined as v.p. in the corporate coverage group specializing it marketing structured products and credit derivatives as well as interest-rate and foreign exchange derivatives to Japanese corporates.
At Merrill, Tanaka reports to Teruyuki Maruoka, head of the corporate coverage group in Tokyo. Maruoka did not return messages.
A market official in Tokyo noted that nabbing the pair was a coup for Merrill as they are said to be strong-performers. At Morgan Stanley, Sekino reported to Toshiyuki Hamada, managing director in fixed-income, while Tanaka reported to Takashi Yamamura, managing director in fixed-income. Both Hamada and Yamamura did not return calls.
