HKEX nabbed Cindy Chen from Citi, where she was head of securities services for Hong Kong.
She joins HKEX as head of post-trade business development, reporting to Calvin Tai, chief operating officer and head of clearing, HKEX said on December 13. Her post-trade team was only formed in mid-2018, with a cross-asset mandate to work with customers and stakeholders on improving clearing services.
HKEX confirmed an earlier media report that Chen will oversee distributed ledger technology (DLT)-linked projects. HKEX is planning to use DLT for northbound trading under the Stock Connect scheme, the exchange announced in late October.
Chen has established herself as one of the leading experts on China access programmes and helped establish Citi as a key service provider under the Stock Connect and Bond Connect infrastructures linking the Hong Kong capital markets with the Mainland. She joined Citi in 1997.
In November, the exchange also made a hire from BNP Paribas. Ken Chiu, BNPP’s head of the RMB competence centre, joined HKEX’s FICC product development team. He reports to Julien Martin, the head of FIC at HKEX and head of Bond Connect Company Limited, the joint venture between HKEX and China Foreign Exchange Trade System that manages the fixed income link with the Mainland.
Integrated role
Citi announced on Thursday that it had picked Harry Peng as head of prime, futures and securities (PFSS) for Hong Kong and China, replacing Chen. He will relocate to Hong Kong from Shanghai, where he was already in charge of the China PFSS business.
Peng reports to David Russell, head of PFSS for Asia Pacific and head of markets and securities services for Hong Kong.
“As the Hong Kong and China securities market infrastructures connect more closely, this role will enable Citi to offer seamless solutions to our clients,” said Russell in a statement.
Peng joined Citi in 2005 on a trading desk in New York.