RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada has hired Mike Bass as a Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income & Currencies, Asia (non-Japan). It also announced the appointment of Mark Otis Zownir as a Managing Director and Head of USD Rates Trading, Asia. Both Bass and Zownir will be based in RBC Capital Markets Hong Kong office.
Bass brings over 20 years experience in fixed income and currencies to RBC Capital Markets. He joins RBC Capital Markets from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was most recently Head of Commodities in Singapore. Prior to this, Bass held positions at HVB and Rabobank in Asia. Zownir joins RBC Capital Markets with over 15 years of rates trading experience. He was most recently Head of Yen Rates Trading at Citigroup in Tokyo, having previously worked in SSA Trading in Citigroups New York and London offices.
As we move into the next phase of our global expansion, Asia offers tremendous growth opportunities, says Harry Samuel, Co-head of Fixed Income & Currencies and Regional Head of Global Markets, RBC Capital Markets. Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo are crucial locations for our fixed income and currencies product build-out.
With a particular emphasis on our US dollar product, these senior hires will be instrumental in developing our strategy in Asia, says Jonathan Hunter, Co-head of Fixed Income & Currencies, RBC Capital Markets. Hong Kong is our main trading hub for our US Primary Dealership in Asia and is now our principal platform for emerging markets sales and trading.
Over the last 12 months RBC Capital Markets has hired in excess of 320 people throughout its global capital markets operations. In Asia, over the last six months, RBC has announced the appointments of Stefanie Holtze and Chris Tam as Directors in its Fixed Income and Currencies business in Hong Kong and Minako Endo as a Director and Head of Institutional Fixed Income Sales in Tokyo. RBC is one of only eight banks with a Triple A rating from Moody’s and has a Tier 1 Capital Ratio of 12.9%.
D.C.