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Citigroup Tops Asia Pacific Fixed Income Business, Survey Shows

Citigroup Tops Asia Pacific Fixed Income Business, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. is the top fixed income bank for Asia Pacific excluding Japan this year by market share, according to a Greenwich Associates survey of debt market professionals that focuses on the secondary market.

HSBC Holdings Plc ranked second and JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG tied at third in the region that includes Australia and New Zealand. The fixed income rankings include services related to credit, rates, Asia bonds denominated in dollars, euro and yen and developed market government bonds.

It’s becoming increasingly tough for banks to make money in fixed income, but investors and dealers are putting resources into the region as China opens up its $13 trillion bond market.

Global banks are focusing on distressed bonds and loans as a key source of revenue, and there has been renewed investor interest in less liquid, higher margin products, according to Greenwich. India’s underperforming loans have attracted “substantial interest” from investors around the world and new distressed supply is likely to mainly come from China, where high-yield corporate debt outweighs the rest of the region, according to Greenwich.

“Given the focus on profitability on the sell side, a number of dealers are focusing on the relatively less liquid spectrum of products, and investor interest in these areas is providing a boost,” said Greenwich Associates Principal Parijat Banerjee in the report.

Greenwich conducted 721 interviews with fixed-income investment professionals throughout Asia excluding Japan between May and July 2019.

To contact the reporter on this story: Denise Wee in Hong Kong at dwee10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net, Ken McCallum, Finbarr Flynn

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.