No big bank in the US and Europe has proven to be immune to the financial crisis. Some, though, are bearing up better than others. One such is Standard Chartered, the emerging markets specialist, which is quickly growing its wholesale banking business.
Since January, the bank has embarked on a hiring spree in both its global markets and corporate finance units, of a kind more commonly seen in times of economic boom than bust. Big name hires this year include Mohammed Grimeh from Lehman Brothers to run trading for the Americas; David Douglas, also from Lehman, to be global head of equity capital markets; Ronnie Potel from Citi to be global head of convertible bonds and equity-linked origination; Henrik Raber from UBS to head the European capital markets business; and Brent Eastburg, as the new global head of credit trading from Ravenscourt Capital Partners, where he ran a credit hedge fund.
Over the past six months Standard Chartered has also bought a number of portfolios and businesses around the world. In April, it acquired an aircraft-leasing portfolio from GE; in February it bought equities specialist Cazenove Asia in Hong Kong from JPMorgan; while in December it added oil and gas M&A advisory boutique Harrison Lovegrove to the group.