ING boosts equity division

ING has been hiring again. The bank will announce today that it has made four key appointments in its equity division. Topping the list is Jenkin Leung, who joins the firm as head of Hong Kong equity sales. He joins from CLSA where he worked for eight years, most recently as head of Hong Kong and China sales. He was also instrumental in setting up CLSA's Asian sales desk in London.

Also joining on the sales side is Donald Klip, who joins as a specialist hedge funds salesman. His role will be to sell equity to hedge funds and provide them with service, ideas and product. He will be based in Hong  Kong and have a regional remit. Klip joins from a private investment group called Search Investment Group where he was a senior manager on a hedge fund called the Search Trading Opportunities Fund.

ING has also promoted Robert Lacey to be head of Asian sales trading - a position that has been empty for some time. All three will report to Stephen Hill, head of equity sales for ING in Asia.

On the trading side, ING has hired Rohan Boman to be head of trading, market neutral strategies. He joins from Macquarie in Sydney and is relocating to Hong Kong. He will be responsible for all index arbitrage, statistical arbitrage and pairs trading.

Finally Stewart Calvey has been named head of Hong Kong cash trading, cutomer fulfilment and execution. He is transferring to Hong Kong from ING in London where he worked on the European markets desk.

These hires bring the number of new staff in ING's Asian equity division this year to 20. According to insiders in the bank, the fact that ING has seats on ten stock exchanges around the region is a defining difference between its equity business and that of other investment banks operating in the region.