Morgan Stanley, the US banking giant, has bolstered its Asian macro-research team with the hire of two executive directors.

Geoff Kendrick joins the company as head of the Asian forex and local rates strategy, while Kewei Yang becomes head of the Asia-Pacific interest rate strategy. Both positions are based in Hong Kong.

Kendrick and Yang move from Nomura, where the former was the head of European forex strategy at the London office and the latter was executive director at the Singapore office. Kendrick now reports to Viktor Hjort, head of Asia fixed income, while Yang reports to Kendrick.

The Hong Kong office serves as Morgan Stanley's Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) headquarters, as well as the gateway into China.