Bank of America gets hiring

Bank of America has appointed Freda Sze as regional head of global derivative sales to be based in Hong Kong. Sze joins the bank from Citibank where she worked for the previous 12 years. She will report to Goetz Eggelhoefer, Bank of America's Head of Global Markets Group. "Freda's experience working within a matrixed organization and co-ordinating product delivery across a regional branch network will be extremely valuable in augmenting the GMG business in Asia," said Eggelhoefer.

Over the past six months, Bank of America has hired 20 extra professionals for its global markets group. The strategy behind the moves is that the bank is keen to bring sophisticated products from the US and Europe to Asia and is upgrading its personnel to achieve that. "I think we now have the intellectual capital required to achieve our goals, said Eggelhofer.

Across the hallway in the foreign exchange department, the bank has also announced two new hires. Yataka Kawazoe will be a principal in corporate sales and based in Tokyo. Kawazoe was head of trading at Barclays Bank in Tokyo. Jiang Wei joins the FX team from Bank Brussels Lambert in Hong Kong as a VP in institutional sales.

The moves show that Bank of America is carrying out its strategy of focusing on profitable markets businesses in Asia. Commenting on the hires Colm McCarthy, President of Bank of America Asia said:"We are bullish on Asia and we believe we are close to the right mix of business for our strong client base in the region."