Standard Chartered Hiring 1,800

London-based Standard Chartered, a bank with strong operations in Asia, announced plans to hire 1,800 new traders and underwriting executives in hopes of increasing revenue in those units to $10 bilion from $4.4 billlion.

The move to boost headcount and business is being spearheaded by Leonard Feder, who formerly served as co-head of Bear Stearns' prime brokerage unit and now heads Standard Chartered's financial markets division.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Feder said Standard Chartered "plans to expand in underwriting securities denominated in the Chinese currency and boost trading on behalf of clients in equities, commodities and currencies." Feder also said "he's looked at about 15 potential acquisition targets in the last 12 months, without identifying them ... [H]e wants to pursue expansion in markets like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, moving beyond Standard Chartered's traditional strongholds including Hong Kong, Singapore, India and South Korea."

Three weeks ago, Standard Chartered also announced that it would be hiring 4,000 employees in its Southeast Asia offices over the next two years.