Citi
Citi has reorganized its entire Asia-Pacific business as part of chief executive Vikram Pandit’s drive to give greater decision-making power to regional heads. Ajay Banga, who replaced Bob Morse as head of the Asia-Pacific institutional clients group in August, will continue as chief executive of Citi Asia Pacific. The US bank now divides the region into four areas: Japan, north Asia, south Asia and southeast Asia-Pacific, with seven product and coverage groups supporting them. There were no dramatic surprises in the choice of regional chief executives:
Stephen Bird will run north Asia (China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan) and consumer banking. Doug Peterson continues as chief executive Japan. Sanjay Nayar continues to lead south Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka).
Piyush Gupta heads southeast Asia Pacific, which includes most of the Asean countries plus Australia, New Zealand and Guam.
Among the list of the heads of the seven product groups, perhaps the most notable move is Aamir Rahim’s departure from the successful fixed-income, currencies and commodities desk to the regional global wealth management team.
RBC Capital Markets
Those who successfully made it to the lifeboats as Bear Stearns was going under are starting to crop up elsewhere, as two hires for the Hong Kong office of the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada show.