A spokesman for Jefferies’ New York office declined to comment on the report, which was published yesterday in the South China Morning Post, which cited "three people in the industry familiar with the matter".
Liu resigned from RBS in August.
The SCMP noted that in hiring Liu, Jefferies was bucking a current trend for international investment banks to cut back on staffing costs.
“Hundreds of jobs have been cut at several international investment banks in Hong Kong this year, due partly to weak equity markets,” the SCMP said.
Also yesterday, Jefferies announced that it had been granted a Capital Markets Services licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, enabling its Jefferies Bache Futures & Options business to engage in the trading of futures contracts in the city-state.
Patrice Blanc, president of Jefferies’ Futures Brokerage operation and chief executive of Jefferies Bache, said the MAS licence represented a "significant milestone in the continued development of the Jefferies Bache’s business in Asia".
