Crédit Lyonnais is transferring Edward Willems, head of distribution and Japanese head of credit derivatives in Tokyo, to London to assume a global role in CALYON, the entity formed out of the Lyonnais and Crédit Agricole Indosuez merger. Willems said he will head up non-flow fx, interest rate and commodity sales from March. The role includes structured derivatives.
"The first step will be making sense of the new setup," said Willems, noting that he will look to integrate Lyonnais' product lines and sales teams with those of Crédit Agricole Indosuez. Non-flow products will be differentiated by sales strategies and clients. For instance, an interest-rate swap sold to a Japanese corporate would be handled by Willems' team, but the same swap purchased by a hedge fund would be classified as a flow product.
One market official familiar with Willems said, "He's made them a fortune in Japan." Willems set up a credit derivatives desk for the bank in Japan in 2002 (DW, 7/15/02).
