Credit Suisse has announced a strengthening of its structured retail products group, with the appointment of Philip McLean to its sales team in Australia.

McLean joins from Macquarie Group, where he was in a senior sales role for equity derivatives. Prior to that, he worked at the ASX Ltd. within the structured products and warrants division. He joins Patrick James who also joined the group late last year from law firm Blake Dawson to manage product structuring.

The bank has also made several other new hires, including a new REITs equities research team.

Commenting, Jonathan Gurnsey, head of equities for Australia, said: "We have made a number of exciting hires across our equities platform, and we expect to continue to grow this business through 2010. These new hires come from a range of backgrounds, reflecting an approach that embraces both highly experienced, top-rated people from other leading financial institutions, and also new talent from alternative but related industries and backgrounds."