A senior HSBC trader has just joined BNP Paribas in Hong Kong

BNP Paribas has poached a senior credit trader from HSBC in Hong Kong as its global hiring drive in credit reaches Asia.

Jeff Leung joined the French bank earlier this month after three years as a flow credit trader in HSBC’s global banking and markets division, according to his online profile.

BNP Paribas has more than 250 credit traders across 10 offices worldwide, and it has been hiring this year following an excellent 2016 for its global markets unit.

Last month we reported that Shokat Khan, a senior emerging markets trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, is to join BNP Paribas in London. The bank also took on UK-based Goldman Sachs traders Robert Boeheim and Eusta Qin in May.

In Asia, while banks (including BNP Paribas) have been axing scores of equity traders, recruitment in credit trading remains comparatively buoyant, say headhunters.

“Interest in credit is coming back at the hedge funds and asset managers in Hong Kong, so it’s not surprising that banks like BNP now want in on the game,” says trader-turned-headhunter Matthew Hoyle.

Oxford graduate Leung started his career as a structured credit trader at RBS in London in 2008 before moving to Hong Kong in 2012 with CITIC Securities.

His stint at the Chinese firm lasted less than two years and was followed by a one-year tenure at Credit Suisse. Credit traders in Asia tend to move between banks fairly frequently during their early careers, say recruiters.

BNP Paribas’ hiring in Asian credit trading is dwarfed by its headcount needs in private banking, however. Last month we estimated that the firm will have to recruit about 120 relationship managers in Singapore and Hong Kong to achieve its new goal of being a top-five private bank in Asia by assets under management.

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