DB bolsters e-commerce team

Deutsche Bank has formally announced the appointments of three e-commerce executives to be based in its Singapore and Indonesian offices, a process that commenced in 2003.

In the Singapore office, Brotin Muhuri, who joined in mid-2003 from Indus Valley Partners, has been appointed Deutsche's vice president of global liquidity solutions. Working closely with Muhuri in Singapore is Michele Wee, who is also named vice president of global liquidity solutions. Wee joined Deutsche in December 2003 from Bloomberg Trading Services.

The most recent hire to its e-commerce team is Made Artha, who comes across from PT Reuters Services Indonesia. Artha comes to Deutsche's Jakarta office as a sales specialist on Autobahn, the bank's electronic trading platform which delivers a continuous stream of executable currency prices to clients 24 hours a day.

The announcement of these three new executives follows Deutsche's recent aggressive hiring platform in the e-commerce sector across the region.

In February and March of this year, the bank hired one new member in each of the Taiwan, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Philippines markets, adding two to the Hong Kong e-commerce team.

According to Deutsche Bank, the hiring spree has been motivated by stellar growth in the electronic-based trading volumes of currencies and fixed income across Asia.

"The last 18 months have been a watershed period for trading platforms in Asia," says Mark Rechner, head of Deutsche Bank e-commerce Asia ex-Japan. "Within a very short period we've moved from a traditional voice-service approach model in Asia to large-scale commoditization."

Rechner points out that through its Autobahn platform, regional electronic trading volumes in foreign exchange and fixed income rose 7000% in 2003 from the previous year, largely driven by the increasing commoditization of various forms of currency trades and secondary bond markets. The Autobahn platform was launched in Asia in 2001.

Deutsche Bank will continue to bolster this unit by announcing another executive e-commerce appointment in Thailand in the near future.