HSBC adds US dollar specialists

HSBC is making a push into the US-dollar denominated cash and payments market with the hire of five new salespeople to focus on securing financial institution (FI) clients. The push will be headed by Bank of New York and JP Morgan Chase veteran William Chin, who has become senior vice president and regional product manager, reporting directly to divisional head Lawrence Webb. Chin has 20 years of experience in sales and product management across US dollar and multi-currency clearing, exchange payments, and CLS settlement services.

The Hong Kong market will be covered by Wendy Chiu who resigned from Citibank to take up the post of vice president of cash management sales to financial institutions in the territory. Chiu has also worked for Wachovia Bank and brings nine years of experience in the area of FI sales. Her counterpart focusing on Southeast Asia but also based in Hong Kong will be Desiree Handy, recruited directly from Wachovia Bank. Handy has lived and worked in Singapore and Malaysia and will cover markets from Australia to Vietnam in her new role.

In Tokyo, Seiichi Kusumoto has been promoted to focus primarily on selling US dollar clearing services to Japanese institutions and cross-selling HSBC group products to Japanese regional banks. He has been with HSBC since September 1997 when he joined from Chase.

Lastly, the important market of China, where Lily Zou has joined the bank's Shanghai office to focus on US dollar accounts, payments and clearing products in that market. Zou was previously with Union Bank of California and Wachovia Bank in Shanghai, responsible for corresponding banking services in multiple provinces.