UPDATE 1-DBS hires ex-C.Suisse exec as Asia credit trading head
* Kenny Chong to head unit trading Asian high yield bonds
* Hiring sign of Asia banks picking talent from foreign banks
* Nomura's new head of Asia rate research from Barclays
(adds detail, background)
By Saeed Azhar
SINGAPORE, July 6 (Reuters) - Singapore's DBS Group (DBSM.SI) has hired a high profile credit trader from Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) to head its unit that would trade Asian high yield bonds.
Kenny Chong has joined DBS as managing director and head of Asian high yield and corporate flow trading, a bank spokeswoman said in an email on Monday. Flow traders buy and sell products on the financial markets for the bank's clients.
Chong left Credit Suisse in December. He worked for the Swiss bank as managing director and head of a team that traded high yield bonds and credit derivatives in Asia ex-Japan, sources said.
"He will help us in expanding the Asian fixed income business and facilitate client flow business," DBS said.
The hiring is a sign that Asian banks, which have weathered the credit turmoil better than their global peers, are picking up top talent from foreign banks, which have had to scale back operations in the region.
Desmond Supple, a respected economist and former head of Asian research at Barclays (BARC.L), started working for Nomura (8604.T) in May as its new head of local market rates strategy for Asia ex-Japan, a Nomura spokeswoman said.
In the past few months international banks have scaled back their structured credit businesses in Asia, triggering several layoffs and departures, banking sources said.
But investors such as hedge funds in Asia are now slowly warming up to high yield credit and derivatives as financial markets show some signs of healing after a meltdown last year, analysts said.
The Asia iTraxx investment-grade index <0#ITAIGMPBMK=> excluding Japan -- which measures high-credit bond spreads in Asia -- traded at 188/195 bps on Friday. [ID:nHKG220520].
The spread has narrowed from a record high of 630/650 bps in October when credit markets were deeply stressed following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.
That is attracting more issuers into the primary market. Thomson Reuters data shows Asian G3 currency bond issuance rose 53 percent in the first half of the year to $28.3 billion.
"Risk appetite has come back, investors are ready to put money to work and issuers are beginning to get faintly interested," said a Hong Kong-based debt-origination banker.
"Issuance volumes should be robust for the rest of the year. The secondary market activity is effected by the primary market. If there are no primary issues, people are not buying and selling as vigorously," he said. (Additional reporting by Umesh Desai in HONG KONG; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)
