The appointment of David Robins and Malcolm Le May as respectively chief executive and head of global corporate finance at ING Barings reunites the two former UBS management partners whose high profile should go some way to reassuring insiders and clients about their new employer's commitment to investment banking.
According to ING Barings' chairman (and acting CEO) Marinus Minderhoud, Robins has been given a "full mandate to further develop and strengthen our global corporate and investment banking business". Observers say the two appear to have been given firmer control over the bank than Robins's predecessor, Arjun Mathrani, who resigned in May following a dispute over the bank's European strategy.
Following a successful three-year stint as UBS's chief operating officer in Europe, Robins had found himself dismantling much of his own handiwork following the merger with SBC Warburg last December.
With management responsibility for the new integrated investment banking division, Warburg Dillon Read, given to SBC Warburg people, Robins had to oversee the resignation or redundancy of 1,400 of his former staff in Europe, dismantling many businesses that he felt were as successful as those at Warburg Dillon Read, and letting go, as he puts it, "many high-quality people who in my view were on a par with and in many instances better than their counterparts at Warburg Dillon Read".