Standard Chartered’s APAC head of FX Chris Knight resigns after 11 years to head back to Oz

Speculation among industry participants on the imminent departure of Standard Chartered Head of e-Trading (East) for FX, Rates and Credit Chris Knight from the company after 11 years grew yesterday after sources close to the matter explained to media entities that Mr. Knight had tendered his resignation.

Based in Singapore, the third largest interbank FX center in the world and the largest in Asia, Mr. Knight has been head of FX, Rates and Credit for the Asia Pacific region at Standard Chartered since November 2006 and is into his tenth year in the position.

His total tenure at the company spans eleven years, as he joined the firm in July 2004 as Chief Dealer of the company’s G10 desk based in Hong Kong.

Mr. Knight joined Standard Chartered from WestLB AG, where he was a senior FX trader for several years. At WestLB, he moved to different locations in the Asia Pacific Region with the business, beginning with two years in Sydney, followed by five years in Singapore, where he was resonsible for various G10 currency pair trading.

Originally from Australia, Mr. Knight is understood to have plans to repatriate himself to his home country when his tenure at Standard Chartered draws to a close.

Going back to the 1990s, Mr. Knight was a Senior FX Dealer at the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank between 1996 and 1997 where he traded the USDJPY pair from the firm’s offices in Sydney, Australia.

Prior to that, he was an FX Trader for three years between 1993 and 1996 at Indosuez Australia, a position he took up after three years as Senior Dealer at Asahi Bank where he concentrated on spot FX trading.

Mr. Knight began his career in FX twenty five years ago in 1990 at CCF Sydney where he worked in the dealing room as his foray into what has become a very senior level career in the interbank sector.