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Both of will be based in London and report to Theodora Zemek, global head of fixed income.

The credit team is now split into two regions. The US Credit team will be headed by Hannah Strasser, while the Credit ex-US will be run by Graham Nicol from December 16 2008.

Nicol's role as head of Credit ex-US is a newly created position and, according to Axa, a key part of the newly structured organisation within the fixed income team, which is now based around investment themes rather than product families.

Nicol joins the firm from JPMorgan, where he was head of international investment-grade credit. Prior to this, he worked as a fund manager for 11 years at Western Asset as well as working at the Bank for International Settlements and Bishopsgate International.

Bettaieb Loriot joins the company in May 2009 from Swisscanto Asset Management, where he is interim head of fixed income and senior credit portfolio manager, based in Zurich.

He trained as a credit analyst at Bank of America, focusing on both financial institutions and industrial corporates, and has more than 15 years' credit management experience, including high yield.

On the recent hires, Zemek said: "We are naturally pleased to have candidates of the calibre of Nicol and Bettaieb join us.

"These appointments are part of the new structure within fixed income, which we put in place in order to further enhance the existing expertise within the team, increase the alignment between fund managers and analysts and to put our view of investing on a thematic basis rather than a product basis into practice."