State Street Global Services reorganises regional teams

State Street Global Services (SSGS), one of the biggest securities-lending agents, has reorganised its business development division into North Asia and South Asia teams and is dedicating more resources, particularly to the latter region.

Jason Yip moved to Singapore from Hong Kong late last year to take up the newly created role of head of South Asia sales for SSGS, where he joins John Mason, who was appointed a year ago to look after new business development.

Mason was previously senior operations manager, while Yip retains his responsibilities for the regional securities finance business of State Street Global Markets.

“Both roles are indicative of the opportunities we see for new business in the region, and across our SSGS and State Street Global Markets businesses,” says Yip.

SSGS’s focus markets in South Asia will be Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and India. Levels of reserves and investments in these countries have been increasing, he says, and institutions can benefit from the various solutions offered by State Street.

On the securities-lending side, he says demand for securities in South Asian markets has been relatively flat in the past two years. However, more recently, the firm has seen a generally higher level of lending activity by clients in the region, due to increasing reserves and outbound investments.

China will also be an interesting market, adds Yip, as it is considering regulatory approval for securities-lending activities.

Yip joined State Street in November 2008, having previously worked at Citi in Hong Kong as Asia-Pacific head of sales for securities finance. Yip has also held management and business development positions with DBS Bank in Singapore, Morgan Stanley in London and Arab Malaysian Merchant Bank in Kuala Lumpur.

State Street has $2.2 trillion in average lendable assets (as of the third quarter of 2010) and $365 billion in securities lending collateral assets under management.