Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. announced the appointment of three senior traders to its global foreign exchange business.
David Hoffman joins Merrill Lynch as a director and forwards trader. He brings to Merrill Lynch more than a decade of experience in trading futures, swaps, derivatives, options, FRAs and other foreign exchange products. He has held various senior trading positions at Deutsche Bank, Nomura Securities and Manufacturers Hanover Trust.
Robert Bogucki joins Merrill Lynch as a director and foreign exchange options trader. Having served for seven years in the Tokyo and London offices of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, Mr. Bogucki will further strengthen the international expertise within Merrill Lynch’s global foreign exchange group. Mr. Bogucki and Mr. Hoffman will be based in New York.
In an expansion of its foreign exchange capabilities in Asia, Merrill Lynch has appointed William Shek to the newly created post of head of Asian currency trading, a critical position to the firm’s focus on expanding its foreign exchange trading activities across the globe.
In his new position, Mr. Shek – who has an extensive Asian currency trading background that includes senior positions in the Hong Kong trading operations of Goldman Sachs and Chase Manhattan Bank – will lead a Tokyo-based team of traders who specialize in the region’s currencies.
“This team brings a tremendous wealth of experience in foreign exchange trading to the firm,” said Michael E. DeSa, head of global foreign exchange. “Foreign exchange is an important part of the total solutions we provide to our global markets and investment banking clients.”
“The expansion of our global foreign exchange business is a good example of the firm’s overall growth strategy of selectively investing in key businesses,” said Dow Kim, head of Global Debt Markets.