Scoffin comes to Asia

Barclays has flagged its intent to further enhance its fixed income operations in Asia by transferring highly-ranked Jon Scoffin from London to Singapore. Scoffin has been appointed as head of Asian credit research for the whole of Asia, including Japan and Australia.

He will report to Desmond Supple, who heads research for Asia as well as global head of credit research, Gary Jenkins.

Scoffin has been with Barclays since 1998 and has over 12 years of experience in corporate credit analysis. In London he headed the European corporate coverage team.

Says Supple: "Jon brings to the team an exceptional grounding in fundamental credit analysis, and a strong track record of translating those views into profitable strategies. Under Jon the depth and breadth of out coverage will expand."

Scoffin arrives in the region at a time when competition between the region's highly-talented credit analysts remains high. While both CSFB's Abdul Hussain and HSBC's John Woods have been promoted to top jobs in London, the talent pool in Asian credit research remains outstanding and is one of the blessings to emerge from the Asian financial crisis and the lessons about credit that it taught.

FinanceAsia will publish its annual fixed income research poll results in the coming weeks.