Newedge, a provider of multi-asset brokerage and clearing services, has named Laurent Cunin head of Asia Pacific region and Pierre Gay global head of fixed income, currency and commodities.

Gay will remain based in Hong Kong at least during the first quarter of 2010 making the transition with Cunin, who will be replacing him at the head of Asia Pacific region.

Cunin was acting chief executive Americas and head of sales Americas. He previously spent a total of eight years in Asia, and until 2005 was the head of Fimat’s Tokyo office.

Cunin will be based in Hong Kong and will focus on expanding and strengthening Newedge’s operations in the Asia Pacific region. Cunin is a Newedge executive committee member, reporting directly to Patrice Blanc, Newedge chief executive, and Nicolas Breteau, global head of sales and front office.

Gay will be responsible for global product management and development, working with regional heads on fixed income, currency and commodities regional performance and reporting to Breteau.

Blanc says: “These appointments reinforce our intention to offer our clients a range of products which are consistent between the different geographical regions. FICC covers forex, fixed income, energy, agricultural and metals businesses and will provide a better coverage of our customer base to match our global organisation. It will also offer stronger cross selling opportunities between the forex, fixed income and commodities. Our global product offer will have more coherence and consistency between the different regions, including Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe and Middle East.”

Newedge is a member of 14 derivatives exchanges in Asia Pacific and employs more than 500 staff in the region.