In a busy March for job changes in capital markets, one story GlobalCapital published attracted huge attention — HSBC’s decision to terminate the job of Farnam Bidgoli, its respected global head of ESG solutions, while she was on maternity leave.
A LinkedIn post about the story was viewed 325,000 times and drew comments including “Very gracious of them to wait for the end of International Women’s Day”.
The cut was one of hundreds resulting from HSBC’s decision last year to merge global banking and markets (GBM) with commercial banking (CMB) and its surprise choice in January to close equity capital markets and M&A in EMEA and the Americas.
The job cut also raised suspicion that HSBC was downgrading its sustainable finance effort. Certainly the bank put at risk at least three managing director-level sustainability positions including Bidgoli’s and that of Alexi Chan, head of sustainability commercialisation for global banking, as part of its GBM-CMB merger.
But the primary motive appears to have been cost cutting. Danny Alexander, CEO of infrastructure finance and sustainability, referred to HSBC’s “net zero ambitions” and the “significant opportunities from the climate transition” when he announced he had chosen Natalie Blyth as global head of sustainable finance and transition for the new merged corporate and institutional bank.
GlobalCapital’s Southpaw column on investment banking analysed whether HSBC’s CIB is likely to be able to achieve its ambition of being a “financing powerhouse” now that it has lopped off ECM and M&A outside the Middle East and Asia.
New CFOs
Away from HSBC, the highest profile banking move was Deutsche Bank’s hire of Raja Akram, Morgan Stanley’s deputy chief financial officer, to be its next CFO. There is loads of lead time — James von Moltke, who has held Deutsche’s purse strings for the last eight years, is not leaving until the middle of next year, so Akram will only join DB in October and work his way into the job next year.
Deutsche also gave CEO Christian Sewing and board member Fabrizio Campelli three year extensions to their contracts. Stefan Simon, CEO of the Americas, is leaving for personal reasons.
Danske Bank’s new CFO started in March — Cecile Hillary, formerly Lloyds Bank’s group treasurer and before that a securitization banker at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
Hire and hire
GlobalCapital also broke the news of several capital markets hires. Mizuho is taking Matthew Ponsonby, BNP Paribas’s head of global banking UK, to be its new head of EMEA CIB and president and CEO of Mizuho International. Suneel Bakhshi, in the post since 2022, has been promoted to deputy president of the whole group.
At Mizuho’s rival MUFG, Kenny Rosenberg is joining from Morgan Stanley as head of ABS syndicate in New York. He replaces Lauren Hoard, who has left for KKR.
Phoebe Lim, who resigned from Barclays in December, has joined Citigroup in Stockholm as head of Nordic financial institutions group within corporate banking.
ING’s bond syndicate desk in London, which handles emerging market, high yield and bank capital, while the Brussels team runs investment grade deals, has followed its hire of ex-JP Morgan FIG specialist Dimis Theodorou last summer by recruiting Diekola Lanre-Ojo as a vice-president. He had worked at Deutsche until last August.
Other notable changes in the bond market included Santander promoting Sean Taor to head of IG debt for EMEA; Barclays moving Scott Schulte in New York up a level to join Marco Baldini as global co-head of IG debt syndicate; and SMBC wooing Andrew Burton, Credit Suisse’s former liability management expert.
Law firms are also busy hiring, especially securitization specialists. Clifford Chance has taken Mayer Brown CLO partner Joanna Nicholas in New York, while Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett has nabbed aviation finance expert Niels Jensen from Vinson & Elkins. Ryan McNaughton, securitization partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, will now practise at Davis Polk.
Away from bonds, one of the leading figures in the EMEA loan market of the past 25 years, Charlotte Conlan, has retired from BNP Paribas. GlobalCapital spoke to her about how the leveraged finance market has changed and how BNPP has managed to rise from a minor player to one of the top banks.
Looking ahead to April, one of the most intriguing pieces of news to look out for will be whom Crédit Agricole chooses to be the next CEO of its CIB. Could it be Pierre Gay, Jean-François Balaÿ or Jacques Prost? GC summed up the runners and riders.
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