New head for Morgan Stanley in Oz

SYDNEY - Morgan Stanley has again hired from Credit Suisse in the Asia-Pacific region, with Marcus Nixon joining the US bank to head foreign exchange sales for Australia, according to sources at the bank.

He is due to start at Morgan Stanley in Sydney in mid-October, after completing gardening leave from his current post. Nixon was most recently working in a similar role for Credit Suisse, in Singapore.

His move will see him renew a reporting line to Yukiko Hashimoto, head of FX sales, Asia-Pacific, for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. The pair has worked together before, as Hashimoto was formally at Credit Suisse in Singapore, where she headed FX sales for the same region (FX Week, February 25, 2008).

Morgan Stanley has made several hires in the Asia-Pacific region at the expense of Credit Suisse recently. Five of the Swiss bank's China sales team for financial institutions made the switch in Hong Kong earlier this summer (FX Week, July 13).

Separately, in New York Morgan Stanley has recruited a salesperson from Citi with the hire of Kristen Fanarakis. She starts today (August 10), working in foreign exchange sales to real-money clients, replicating the role she had at Citi.

Fanarakis reports locally to Tom Haskins, head of FX sales, Americas. Haskins has been recruiting steadily in the real-money FX market throughout 2009. His hiring tally now stands at seven (FX Week, July 13, June 22 and June 8).

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.