Barclays adds to sales team in Asia

Barclays Capital has appointed Paul Murphy to a newly created position as managing director within global distribution. Murphy, who has been running his own private investment company, will focus on servicing the bankÆs key clients in the Asia-Pacific.

He will be based in Singapore and will report regionally to Kevin Burke, BarclaysÆ head of distribution in Asia-Pacific, and globally to Neil Cummins, managing director of global distribution.

According to a spokesperson at the UK bank, BarclaysÆ global distribution business in the region has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 40% over the past three years. The team interacts with institutional investors and sells products across all asset classes where the bank is active.

ôOur client-focused strategy and single product delivery platform have enabled Barclays Capital to build a strong franchise in the region over the past several years, and the addition of PaulÆs extensive management-level experience should accelerate the growth of our business across Asia-Pacific,ö says Burke in a written statement.

Murphy has more than 20 yearsÆ experience in capital markets and has worked with a number of banks around the world. These include UBS, where he spent 10 years in various sales and product management positions across fixed income and treasury products. He has also held a number of posts at Citibank, AIG Trading and Lloyds Bank in Sydney, Singapore and New York.

The appointment suggests that banks continue to find business opportunities in the region despite the recent market sell-off, and that they are still hunting for sales specialists to foster their expansion plans. Last year, Credit Suisse bolstered its cash equity sales team in Asia-ex-Japan with 20 new appointments, while JPMorgan upsized its equity sales and sales trading team on the ground in India with six hires.