Eight new hires are set to join Citi Australia's Markets and Research business functions providing specialist capability to help meet increased client demand.

Citi welcomes Howard Ilderton who recently joined the bank as Head of Linear Product and Trading for Australia and New Zealand. Howard rejoins Citi from Credit Suisse where he was leading the Japan Prime and APAC Securities Lending team. Prior to these positions, Howard was part of Citi's Prime and D1 team from 2007 to 2014.

Senior trader Will Buttigieg will join Citi's Equity Trading team in July, after 17 years at UBS in Sydney where he has held various trading roles in Equity Derivatives and Facilitation.

Norbert Wong will join Citi's Prime Services team in mid-June in a client facing stock loan and Delta 1 sales role. Norbert has held previous roles at Credit Suisse and Macquarie Bank and is highly regarded by both local and regional hedge fund clients.

Allan Newsome has joined Citi's Low Touch Electronic Execution team after relocating from Citi in Hong Kong where he has been working in Citi's Prime team, responsible for regional hedge fund clients. Allan's worked in London and Hong Kong in both buy and sell side roles and will provide additional capacity as Citi expands on its diverse and growing client base.

Research analyst Howard Penny has joined Citi's highly regarded Real Estate team. He joins from Anchor Capital and has extensive experience spanning the primary and secondary markets with roles at Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Bank, and as a Portfolio Manager with Anchor in South Africa.

Tom Wallington has joined Citi's Industrials Research team. Formerly at Forecast Global, specialising in commercial energy modelling and data analysis, Tom also worked at AME Group as a Natural Resource and Energy Research Analyst.

Other hires into Citi's Research business include Jacob Loi, who has joined Citi's Technology team. Jacob was formerly an Investment Analyst with VFMC's External Mandates Equity team, and Donna Fu, who joins Citi's top ranked Insurance Research team. Donna joins from PWC where she is a Senior Associate in the Actuarial Consulting division.

Commenting on the appointments; Citi Australia's Head of Equities Daniel Young, said:
"Citi is continuing to make significant investments including building out our non-cash and trading capabilities, ensuring we have the experience, skills and capacity to meet the increasing activity from our clients."

These new hires follow Citi's recent appointment of Niki Ashton as Managing Director and Senior Relationship Manager to help meet increased client activity with a focus on the superannuation sector.

The super sector is a key area of focus for Citi's Markets business and is providing increasing opportunities in both local and offshore markets as funds internalise their investment function and seek exposure in international markets.

Citi's Markets and Securities Services division provides products and solutions for corporates, institutional investors, and governments through underwriting, structuring and sales and trading across all asset classes, sectors and industries. It is one of the largest brokerages in Australia.