Credit Suisse has appointed Ray Farris as its chief strategist for fixed income in Asia-Pacific. Farris will relocate from London to Singapore when he assumes the newly created role on March 1, but will continue to hold on to his existing job as global head of FX strategy.
As chief strategist for fixed income in the region, Farris will work closely with the firm’s sales and trading management to generate cross-asset research. He will also ensure cooperation among the various strategists within Asia and with the rest of Credit Suisse’s global strategy teams. All the fixed-income strategists in Asia-Pacific will report to Farris.
Farris joined Credit Suisse as an economist in 1998 and rejoined the bank in 2001 to lead its Asia strategy effort in rates and foreign exchange.
In his new role, he will report functionally to Kasper Bartholdy, head of strategy and economics for emerging markets; and to Jonathan Wilmot, chief global strategist. Bartholdy and Wilmot are both based in London. Regionally, he reports to Carsten Stoehr, who is head of fixed income for Asia-Pacific and based in Hong Kong.
Farris's move to Asia underscores a trend that is seeing more bankers with global roles being based in Asia. In the past couple of years, several banks have relocated senior officials to Asia to place a stronger emphasis on the region.
In September 2010, Matthew Kirkby moved back to Hong Kong to become head of global banking for Asia-Pacific at the Royal Bank of Scotland. However, he also continues to be the global head of corporate finance.
In 2009, Ravi Saxena was appointed head of Asia-Pacific trade, export and agency finance at Citi and also became the US bank's first global transaction services head to be based in Hong Kong.
