Bank of America shuffles Asia capital markets leaders

HONG KONG: Bank of America said on Monday it has appointed Matt Basler and Craig Coben to co-head its Asia Pacific capital markets business.

They will replace Chris Gammons who will become vice chairman of emerging growth and regional coverage, the bank said in a statement.

Basler joined the bank in 2007 and was most recently the Americas head of the financial institutions group within the debt capital markets business.

Coben has been BofA's vice chairman of global capital markets since 2018 and has been with the bank for 15 years.

The pair will be based in Hong Kong from August, BofA said.

In January, Reuters reported that the bank intended to hire 50 senior bankers across Asia-Pacific this year as part of an ambitious recruitment plan to help boost market share.

A third of the new hires will be senior bankers, including managing directors, for its merger and acquisitions advisory and capital markets businesses, mainly in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, three sources said at the time.

BofA last week announced Dominic Tan and Otto Wong would become the co-heads of Asia consumer and retail investment banking, based in Hong Kong.

Tan joined from Morgan Stanley and Wong has been with the bank for more than a decade.

The bank also announced on June 4 that James Hu had been appointed as head of China investment banking, joining from Citigroup where he held a similar role.