JPMorgan has hired Hosun Chang, v.p. in equity derivatives at Salomon Smith Barney in Seoul, in a similar role to establish an onshore equity derivatives marketing effort in Korea, according to market officials. Currently, JPMorgan markets equity products for Korea out of its Hong Kong office, where trading for Asia ex-Japan is also located.
This is thought to be part of a marketing push led by David Barrosse, co-head of Asian equity derivatives in London, who joined earlier this year and has subsequently made a number of hires for equity derivatives marketing in Hong Kong including John Moore from Merrill Lynch (DW 3/3). Chang, who will report to Barrosse, did not respond to messages.
At Salomon, Chang reported to Harold Kim, managing director of Asia Pacific equity derivatives in Hong Kong. Kim declined comment.
A number of houses in Asia, including ABN AMRO (DW 5/12), Lehman Brothers and UBS Warburg, have been looking to bulk up their Korean operations in recent weeks, on the back of expected regulatory changes that will open up the onshore market in July (DW, 11/25).