SAO PAULO, April 1 (Reuters) - Itaú BBA SA, the largest Latin American wholesale and investment bank, has hired Carlos Phillips to run its debt capital markets division in Mexico, where the Brazilian lender recently obtained permission to open a broker-dealer.
Phillips, who joined from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA , will be based in New York and report to Baruc Saez, co-head of Itaú BBA's debt capital markets, and John Corcoran, who leads the international bond syndication group at Itaú BBA, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
The appointment of Phillips comes as Itaú BBA seeks to boost its presence in Latin America debt capital markets and especially in Mexico, where equity and bond offerings are outpacing those in the lender's home turf.
"We are eager to replicate the success of Itaú BBA outside of Brazil in recent years, and we believe that the next step should be to increase our DCM presence in Mexico," Saez said in a statement.
The launch of Itaú BBA's broker-dealer is expected to take place in late 2015.
Prior to BBVA, where he spent six years, Mexico-born Phillips worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Itaú is the wholesale and investment banking arm of Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, Brazil's largest bank by market value.
(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Ted Botha)