Merrill Lynch has hired Stephane Shin, structurer at JPMorgan in Seoul, to cover Korea from its Hong Kong desk. The move is seen by market watchers as part of Merrill's on-going effort to expand into the Korean market, evident in the recent hire of Joonkee Hong, head of debt markets for Korea in Hong Kong, who recently joined from UBS (DW, 3/28).
Merrill is also expecting to obtain its onshore banking license in the coming weeks (DW, 12/15). Shin, starting next month, will report to Hong, who was traveling and could not be reached.
At JPMorgan, Shin had stints in both New York and Seoul and reported to Charles Wong, head of rates structuring in Hong Kong, who did not respond to messages.
