People: New Asia-Pacific legal head for CME

Nikko Asset Management hires risk chief; Credit Suisse adds in Asia; Listorti leaves ANZ

CME's Chicago headquarters

CME Group has appointed Eli Cohen as associate general counsel, Asia, where he will be responsible for legal and regulatory work for the firm's Asia-Pacific local office operations, as well as legal work for local marketing and sales within the firm's broader activity in the region. Cohen will be based in Singapore and report to Adrienne Seaman, CME's head of legal for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia.

Cohen joins from the Singapore Exchange where was head of legal for the previous two and half years, and in a press release announcing the appointment Christopher Fix, head of the Chicago firm's business in the region, welcomed his extensive knowledge of the Asia-Pacific derivatives market.

Cohen has 25 years of industry experience, and has worked in various legal and compliance roles in Asia and Europe for organisations including Euroclear, and the Asian Development Bank, as well as SGX. He has also worked at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, Moscow and Washington, DC. Cohen's appointment was effective from March 1.

 

Nikko Asset Management has appointed Mark de Vries as chief risk management officer with responsibility for the governance of risk and related opportunities, encompassing investment and enterprise risk management for the Tokyo-headquartered asset manager. The CRMO will report to executive deputy president, Junichi Sayato.

De Vries was most recently head of quantitative analytics and risk at Singapore-based hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital. In addition, de Vries has more than 20 years of professional experience globally with firms including ABN Amro Bank, Shinsei Bank, and Nomura.

 

Credit Suisse has created two new Hong Kong-based roles for its Asia-Pacific advanced execution services team. Steven King is now head of advanced execution services sales Asia-Pacific at the bank and he will be responsible for driving algorithmic sales initiatives across the region.

King's most recent position was at Morgan Stanley where was responsible for leading the program trading desk in Asia as part of an 18-year stint with the firm.

Divyesh Patel also joins as a senior coverage trader in electronic trading for Asia ex-Japan where he will serve institutional clients and fundamental focused hedge funds. Before joining Credit Suisse, Patel spent 11 years with Investment Technology Group, a US-listed execution broker where his most recent role was head of Asia electronic trading coverage.

 

Eddie Listorti (pictured), acting global head of markets at ANZ, has left the Australian bank to set up his own commodities fund.

Shayne Collins, group general manager for markets risk, took over responsibility for the global markets division on February 22, while a permanent successor is sought.

Singapore-based Listorti replaced Steve Bellotti at the helm of ANZ's global markets division after he left the firm in November.

"I realise it is probably a surprise to see Eddie leaving," said ANZ chief executive Mark Whelan in an internal note. "He took on the role at short notice in November, after Steve Bellotti left ANZ. In that time, Eddie has done a great job leading the business through a challenging period with volatile financial markets and reputational issues in the media. However, I understand the personal ambition he has to step outside ANZ to establish his own fund."

Since joining the Australian bank in 2010, Listorti led its venture into the fixed-income, currencies and commodities (Ficc) business as part of a drive to support customer trade and investment flows, including expansion in Singapore, China and London.

Previously, Listorti worked at Dresdner Kleinwort's London office for 10 years from 2009, most recently as global head of Ficc. He also worked at Bankers Trust between 1996 and 1999.

 

JPX, the combined exchange group that incorporates Japan's leading derivatives and cash markets, the Osaka and Tokyo Exchanges, has reorganised its management structure.

The exchange is looking to expand its derivatives activity by setting up a business development department at the OSE to strengthen the sales and marketing functions for this asset class. It will also perform a similar reorganisation of its Tokyo cash equity business.

The exchange group has previously stated its ambitions to expand globally either by directly setting up overseas or via tie-ups with foreign exchange businesses and has now set up a global strategy department to help facilitate this aim.

The third arrow of JPX's management restructure is the creation of a JPX clearing and settlement development department which will take over the co-ordination and planning for this function within the exchange.

 

Financial consultancy Deloitte has announced that its current Singapore chief executive, Philip Yuen, will succeed Chaly Mah as the firm's South-east Asia chief executive on June 1 when Mah retires at the end of this fiscal year. Deloitte South-east Asia comprises 270 partners and more than 7,300 professionals in 25 office locations.

Chaly will continue to serve on the boards of the Singapore Economic Development Board, Sentosa Development Corporation, Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, Singapore Accountancy Commission and National University of Singapore Board of Trustees.

 

David Geen, who has served as general counsel at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association since 2008, is leaving after a decade at the industry group.

It is understood that Geen, who first joined Isda in 2006 as European general counsel, will formally exit the organisation at the end of March but has been on leave since the end of January. His post is being filled by Katherine Tew Darras, general counsel for the Americas, until a successor can be recruited. Isda declined to comment.

As general counsel, Geen was heavily involved in the trade body's efforts to craft industry responses to new regulations, such as the resolution stay protocol, designed to help avoid a mass close-out of over-the-counter derivatives contracts in the event of a big bank defaulting, along with a raft of other changes to standard Isda documentation necessitated by post-crisis reforms.

He also served as secretary for the Market Participants Group on Reforming Interest Rate Benchmarks, which provided industry feedback on implementing benchmark reforms prescribed by the Financial Stability Board in 2013.

Prior to joining Isda, Geen served as senior counsel at Goldman Sachs from 2000 to 2006, where he served variously as head and co-head of the legal department's derivatives group. He is credited with playing a key industry representative role in the run-up to the publication of the 2003 Isda Credit Derivatives Definitions.

Before that, he was a partner in the London office of law firm Baker & McKenzie from 1997 to 1999.

 

B.P. Kanungo has been named as an executive director at the Reserve Bank of India, moving from his current role as director of the foreign exchange department.

During his time at the central bank, he has held multiple roles, including regional directorships in Jaipur and Kolkata, as well as banking ombudsman for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Kanungo is one of 11 executive directors at the central bank. In his new role, he will oversee departments for foreign exchange, government, bank accounts and internal debt management.

 

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking has appointed Ashwan Malhotra (pictured) as managing director, client coverage for the bank's Asia-Pacific operations. Malhotra will be based in Hong Kong and report to Pascal Sefrin, who heads corporate client coverage in the region.

Malhotra's mandate is to expand SocGen's commodity hedging franchise with its corporate clients in Asia-Pacific, especially in Japan and India. Malhotra joins SocGen from Jefferies where he was managing director, responsible for origination, sales and trading of over-the-counter derivatives and listed futures in commodities. Prior to that, he was Asia head of commodities at Prudential-Bache and has been based in Hong Kong for 18 years.

 

People's Bank of China (PBoC) veteran Liu Shiyu has been appointed head of the country's main securities regulator following a dramatic year that has seen unprecedented volatility in China's stock markets.

Liu replaces Xiao Gang as China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) chairman following a decision by China's state council and the communist party's central committee, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Liu left the PBoC in 2013 after seven years as deputy governor, and 25 at the central bank. He played a leading role in efforts to reform China's state lenders at the turn of the millennium, serving as governor Zhou Xiaochuan's point-man.

Liu, who holds a master's degree from the economic management school of Tsinghua University in Beijing, left the central bank to become chairman of Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's ‘big four' lenders.

Six of Liu's seven predecessors at the CSRC made their way there via state banks, including Shang Fulin, the regulator's longest serving chairman and also a former Agricultural Bank of China head.

Several chairmen have had a background in central banking, including Xiao Gang, also a former PBoC deputy.

At the CSRC, Liu faces the task of rebuilding confidence in the regulator that has, in some quarters, emerged as the principal scapegoat for China's stock market travails.

Under the leadership of Xiao, looser leverage requirements led China's stock market, the world's second biggest, to triple in size in three years, peaking at $10 trillion before the onset of last year's slump.

Xiao drew fire over efforts to curb the massive subsequent sell-off, including co-ordinated large-scale equity purchases by state-subsidised entities and a ban on the sale of certain stocks.

 

Peter Pang, deputy chief executive at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), retired on February 26. He will be succeeded by Howard Lee, a senior executive director at the institution.

The change will be accompanied by a "reshuffling" of duties between senior management: Lee will inherit Pang's responsibilities for financial infrastructure and monetary management, but research will pass to another deputy chief executive, Eddie Yue.

Pang joined the HKMA in 1994. He initially led the banking policy department, before switching to monetary policy and markets in 1996. After a spell running the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation between 1997 and 2004, he began his current role.

Norman Chan, the HKMA's chief executive, praised Pang's contribution and "dedicated service" during his career. "My colleagues and I wish him a very happy and rewarding retirement life," he said.

Howard Lee heads the department for monetary management at present, a role he has held since May 2013. Before that he led corporate services from 2010, after spending a year as a division head in the banking policy department.

Before joining the HKMA, Lee was an administrative officer in the Hong Kong government, where he worked in a variety of departments, with responsibility for policy formulation, regulatory issues and administration.

Lee will work alongside fellow deputy chief executives Eddie Yue and Arthur Yuen. Yue retains responsibility for the external and reserves management departments, in addition to research. Yuen is responsible for banking conduct, policy and supervision, as well as enforcement and anti-money laundering. Norman Chan, meanwhile, is responsible for risk and compliance, corporate services and general counsel.