Carsten returns to Asia

Half-Japanese banker, Carsten Stoehr will return to the region in January to run CSFB's Japanese fixed income sales and trading operations. Formerly Asian debt capital markets head, Stoehr left the region in early 2003 to become head of DCM for Europe.

The decision to relocate him to Tokyo coincides with a significant change in Japanese regulations that allows brokers in Japan to book derivatives trades done onshore into offshore affiliates.

CSFB has just resumed onshore yen swap trading, and plans to bring other derivatives trading books back to Japan. Under Stoehr's leadership it will try and rebuild its Japanese fixed income business.

Stoehr's reputation as a business-builder, as well as being a fluent Japanese-speaker, made him the natural candidate for the role. During the past two years Stoehr has led a complete turnaround of the European debt business.

Prior to that he built one of the Asia's most dynamic and profitable debt franchises in the space of only a couple of years. Indeed, he arrived in Hong Kong at the end of 1999 at a time when CSFB's Asian debt operations were lacklustre.

After eight months of building and hiring, the firm entered 2001 with a greater focus (especially on high yield) and jumped to the top end of the 'wallet-share' league table with $20 million of public market fees - and given the types of deals executed that number that would be much larger if swaps were included.

Nor is he a stranger to being relocated to the firm's trouble spots. He got the Asian job in October 1999 after being called into John Walsh and Simon Meadows office and told they felt the Asian debt franchise needed repairing and they wanted him to do it. Not only that, they wanted him to relocate to Asia the next month. He agreed within seconds of being asked.

He told FinanceAsia magazine in February 2003: "I took the job in Asia because I enjoy building things and wanted to build."

The same will be true of Japan, where he will be responsible for managing sales, structuring, and trading businesses, reporting functionally to Jim Healy and Jerry Wood and locally to Paul Kuo, the CEO of Japan.

According to an internal memo, CSFB feels the time is right to rebuild its business in Japan: "We believe we are at a turning point in our Japan fixed income business... Carsten will bring strong day-to-day management to our fixed income business in Japan as we seek to rebuild our presence in Japan and take advantage of the business recovery."

Stoehr joined CSFB in 1994, after starting his career at Lehman in 1993. Half-German, and half-Japanese, he speaks five languages, and is considered a formidably persuasive banker, with a very strategic mindset.

Ironically, given his Japanese blood, it will be the first time in his career that he has been based in Japan.