AdviserVoiceLloyds International Archives - AdviserVoice

Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets’ intensified foreign exchange focus

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:50:17 +0000

Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets has boosted its foreign exchange expertise with the appointments of Paul Bernasconi to the newly-created role of Director, Foreign Exchange Institutional Sales, and Nathan Pederson to the newly-created role of Director, Forward Foreign Exchange Trading.

The two hires are in line with the company’s strategic aim of building a competitive and sustainable global foreign exchange business.

Mr Bernasconi will be responsible for developing and delivering core foreign exchange products and services to financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand.

A foreign exchange specialist for more than 20 years, Paul joins Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets from UBS Investment Bank where he was Head of Foreign Exchange Institutional Sales. Before joining UBS, he was Head of Foreign Exchange Investor Sales at ANZ Investment Bank (Sydney) and held business development roles with ABN AMRO Australia and Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. Prior to that Paul was Vice President of Foreign Exchange at AIG International in Hong Kong and London.

Lloyds Bank Corporate Market’s Head of Sales (Australia), Diana Lollato praised Mr Bernasconi’s track record in foreign exchange. “Paul brings a wealth of experience to the team. We are all confident that his knowledge and expertise will strengthen our relationships with existing clients and pave the way for new opportunities. We’re incredibly fortunate to have him in the team,” she said.

Paul started at on 9 July 2012. He has dual reporting lines to Diana Lollato, Head of Sales in Australia and to Robert Garwood, Global Head of Foreign Exchange Sales for Lloyds Bank in the UK.

Mr Pederson will lead the forward foreign exchange and short-term interest rates (STIR) business in the Asia Pacific region.

Nathan has close to 15 years’ experience across the foreign exchange and interest rates markets. In his most recent role, he worked for UBS Investment Bank as the Head of Asia Pacific STIR Trading based in Singapore and Hong Kong. Before that, he was a Senior STIR Trader for UBS based in Zurich.

Nathan started at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets on 16 July 2012. He reports to Michael Peric, Head of Trading in Australia.

Lloyds Bank Corporate Market’s Head of Trading (Australia), Michael Peric, said: “Nathan’s international experience across foreign exchange and interest rate markets is a valuable addition to the Global Markets business based in Sydney. He has a very strong reputation and is well suited to lead the build out of the Asia-Pacific forward foreign exchange and short-term interest rate (STIR) business,” he said.

31 July 2012

The post Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets’ intensified foreign exchange focus appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Lloyds International: A global perspective on the local economy

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:24:58 +0000

Lloyds chief economist on inflation, interest rates and the outlook for the Australian economy

The Australian economy will continue to grow rapidly in 2011 buoyed by the continuing resources boom but is expected to slow in the second half of 2012 as monetary policy is tightened, according to Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets chief economist Trevor Williams.

Visiting Australia last week, Mr Williams provided an upbeat perspective on the Australian economy, saying Australia’s growth prospects in the short term were assured given the continued rise of commodity prices. However it is this ongoing growth of commodity exports that will ultimately lead to a slowing of the Australian economy according to Mr Williams.

“Australia is perfectly placed in that it satisfies the exact commodities that China is demanding – specifically coal and iron ore,” Mr Williams said.

“The resources boom is driving down unemployment and pushing up wages. This scenario typically leads to higher inflation and historically when this happens, the Reserve Bank increases interest rates.

“Given this context, we expect the cash rate to rise by another percentage point to 5.75 per cent by the end of the year and potentially hit 6.5 per cent next year.

“This tightening of monetary policy will curtail consumer spending and increase the savings rate as households look to reduce debt, leading to a slowing of the economy in the second half of 2012.

” While admitting forecasts were dependent on the impact of macro issues, Mr Williams was confident current global uncertainties would not have a lasting impact on the global economy.

“While political instability in the Middle East continues, oil price itself isn’t enough to have any material impact on the global economy – unless there was a dramatic spike; the earthquake and subsequent effects may actually be the thing to jolt the Japanese economy out of recession given the forecast $200 billion in reconstruction investment; and China and emerging markets look set to continue being the growth engines of the global economy continuing to drive demand for commodities.” Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets chief economist Trevor Williams

Top 5 issues facing the Australian economy:

Inflation: Will continue to rise due to growing economy fuelled by the resources boom
Interest rates: To rise to 5.75 per cent by end of 2011
House prices: Are beginning to slide (but not falling as much as expected due to lack of supply
Australian Dollar: Driven up by the resources sector, making it difficult for other export sectors to compete – leading to an increased current account deficit
Debt: High level of domestic debt

The post Lloyds International: A global perspective on the local economy appeared first on AdviserVoice.