Needed for IB Business
Large securities firms, which are about to become a ultra large sized investment bank (IB), are strengthening its competitiveness by hiring experts who worked for foreign companies.
According to IB industry sources on September 5, KB Securities is the most aggressive company that hires experts who worked for foreign companies. The company appointed Koh Jae-yun, the head of the fixed income division in the Seoul branch at Morgan Stanley Securities, as the head of international sales division. Koh served as CEO of the Seoul branch of Goldman Sachs Bank.
In addition, KB Securities brought in Choi Moon-suk as the head of the fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) structuration division last year. Choi was the head of North Asia trading division in the Seoul branch of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Hana Financial Investment also formed a global structuration financial division in cooperation with IB Group’s global business division in August in order to expand the global IB investment. The company hired Koh Young-hwan, former deputy CEO at Crédit Agricole (CA) Bank, as director of the new global business division.
Meritz Securities also appointed Lee Joong-hoon, director of the Hong Kong brach at Goldman Sachs, as its director of the derivative division in July. Lee was a software engineer at Microsoft and changed his career working at the stock structuration product division at Goldman Sachs Hong Kong until recently. He has become one of few people who are appointed as executives in their 30s.
Some say that overseas experts, who have expertise in various investment areas, including derivatives, cannot help but to make an exodus to domestic financial institutions due to the recent restructuring of foreign financial institutions. However, there is a consensus that the IB industry, which needs to face considerable environmental changes, including ultra large sized IB, should create a win-win situation by making the best use of such talent.