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By OH BOON PING
The game of musical chairs has started in the financial sector. But this time around, it seems that the prime targets are experienced corporate bankers.
According to industry watchers, banks such as ANZ, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America are on a hiring spree to beef up their corporate banking teams in Asia, and they are doing so by poaching bankers from rivals.
ANZ, for example, more than doubled its total headcount to 830 here in the last 12 months by buying over staff - including corporate bankers - from more than 10 other rivals, say sources. And Stanchart's corporate bank has been hiring top executives from competitors after completing the acquisition of Cazenove Asia in January last year.
Just this month, Stanchart named a former Citibanker, Paul Lim, as its new head of financial institutions, origination client coverage, for wholesale banking in Singapore. At Citibank, Mr Lim was head of global banking in Thailand. He has more than 17 years of corporate banking experience in various areas, including treasury and risk management.
And in December, Deutsche Bank hired Gautam Hazarika, formerly a Citi director in foreign exchange marketing under the global markets division, to head its corporate flow sales for Asia ex-Japan.
The spate of hirings is hardly surprising given the strong corporate growth story in emerging markets, which translates into potentially huge demand for corporate banking services.
And 'it is just so much easier to buy over bankers who already have a network of corporate relationships than to train a fresh graduate', said one observer.
Citi appears to bear the brunt of the poaching, even though the US bank said it has lost just two experienced corporate bankers to rivals in the last six months, with the team that services the financial institutions segment reportedly still intact.
The market talk is that the bank plans to carry out a local restructuring exercise, which could affect its corporate banking operations here.
When asked, Adam Rahman, corporate affairs director at Citi Singapore, emphasised that corporate banking is still 'a key business for Citi in Singapore', pointing to recent large deals such as the US$3 billion sale of Chartered Semiconductor to ATIC and DBS's US$2.8 billion equity-based financing.
'We are aware that Citibankers have always been sought after, but we ourselves have continued to hire across the board, including senior talent, as we grow and invest in our business in Singapore,' he said.
At the regional level, Citi appears to be hitting back as well, as it recently hired Alasdair Morrison, a former chief executive of Morgan Stanley Asia and former group managing director of Jardine Matheson, as senior adviser in Asia.
The idea is to support Citi's ongoing expansion of its global banking franchise in the region. Last year, the bank also took in some 200 fresh hires across its divisions here, though it is unclear how many joined its corporate banking team.
To better position itself in Asia, Citi has formed a new global banking group in Asia-Pacific to fully integrate its corporate and investment bank coverage across the region, including Japan, into a single, unified coverage group.
'Global banking will focus on our large Asian corporate clients and, along with our regional commercial bank, will ensure we always have the right conversations with our clients and present them with the best advice, products and services for their specific needs,' it said in an internal note.
Last month, the bank repaid US$20 billion in bailout money to the US government, on concerns that the government-imposed pay limits might make Citigroup vulnerable to employee poaching by unfettered Wall Street rivals.
To raise cash to pay off part of the US$45 billion funds from the US government, the company sold common stock, which led to a dip in share prices to under US$4 per share.
Chief executive officer Vikram Pandit indicated that he sought to repay the bailout funds partly to avoid a talent drain to other banks, according to people familiar with the matter.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
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