Credit Suisse First Boston appointed Paul Calello as chief executive for Asia, where the firm struggled last year to win business after regulatory breaches in Japan and India, and a political gaffe in China.
Calello, a 12-year CSFB employee, will also be Asia Pacific Chairman, replacing Stephen Stonefield, who becomes vice-chairman, the firm said in a statement. It's the latest senior management shuffle by Chief Executive John Mack, who has cut about 9 percent of the firm's staff since he took over in July.
"CSFB suffers from an image problem," said Marc Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd, which has invested in Asia for more than 20 years. "The management change is cosmetic."
Mack has been cutting costs and changing personnel as he tries to win back lost business. Mack's ties to China include having helped his former employer, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co, set up the nation's first joint venture investment bank.
This month, CSFB helped China's CNOOC Ltd. sell bonds, after it was removed last year from China Unicom Ltd's estimated US$10 billion share sale for helping Taiwan government officials meet overseas investors. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and objects to actions that appear to recognize Taiwanese sovereignty.
Calello will also oversee Japan. Last March, the firm was fined Y40 million (US$301,000) after the Tokyo District Court ruled that a CSFB unit, closed by regulators in 1999, broke rules separating securities and banking operations.
In September, the bank's India broking business was suspended from trading pending a probe into allegations it and four other brokers manipulated share prices.
Calello, 41, was formerly global head of CSFB's equity derivatives and convertibles business. He spent five years working for the firm in Japan.
CSFB ranked seventh among banks arranging share sales in Asia outside Japan last year, below its No. 5 global position, according to Bloomberg data. It ranked 12th among advisers on Asian takeovers outside Japan, compared with fifth in global transactions.
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