Ren named Merrill’s China chairwoman

Merrill Lynch & Co. has hired a new chairwoman of China investment banking, according to published reports.
Margaret Ren, a former Citigroup Inc. executive, was cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year for giving false information in a 2003 initial public offering.
Ms. Ren, 48, is the daughter-in-law of former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang.
Before being suspended in 2004, she was head of Citibank’s China investment banking along with Earl Yen.
She will report to China region chairman Liu Erh-fei and Asia banking head Sheldon Trainor, reports said.
The New York-based bank is lagging behind other firms like UBS AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in the increasingly competitive field of Chinese IPOs and selling Chinese stock overseas, Bloomberg News reported.