Credit Suisse Hires HSBC’s Yeung for New Credit Trading Desk

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG has hired Edwin Yeung from HSBC Holdings Plc to set up a U.S. and European credit trading desk in Hong Kong.

Yeung joined the Swiss bank as a director at the end of August and reports locally to Andy Mellor, head of Asia Pacific convertible bond and cash bond trading, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. He reports globally to Steven Feinberg, head of investment-grade trading for America, and Chris Orr, co-head of investment-grade trading for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, the memo said. Yeung spent a decade at HSBC and has traded U.S. credit since 2010.

The hiring of Yeung is in response to “significant demand” from customers in Asia to trade U.S. and European investment-grade corporate bonds during local hours, the memo said. It didn’t provide details of the size of the team that would work with Yeung, or whether further hires are planned. Credit Suisse spokeswoman Yukmin Hui, who confirmed the memo, declined to give more details.

Bond desks in Hong Kong have been recruiting from rivals in recent weeks amid record sales. UBS Group AG hired two traders, one each from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc., earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said, while Standard Chartered Plc added three in credit trading and sales.

Primary market sales of U.S. investment grade corporate bonds have reached $1.16 trillion this year, the highest during the same period since at least 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. all posted better-than-expected fixed-income revenue in their latest earnings reports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Viren Vaghela in Hong Kong at vvaghela1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Richard Bedard at rbedard2@bloomberg.net, Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Darren Boey