Standard Bank is bringing aboard a 15-20 person team from HVB Asia in Singapore, including its lauded securitization group. The group, headed by Nick Hamilton, ceo for Asia at HVB in the Lion City, will be joining the South African player to set up a securitization platform as well as for other derivative-related desks.
Hamilton built HVB into a strong niche player for highly-structured securitization and credit deals: the firm was among the first movers for yen-denominated Japanese CDOs (DW, 1/7/02) as well as synthetic CDOs structured for managers located in Asia. "Standard automatically becomes a securitization player in Asia and Japan," said a market official in Tokyo.
Hamilton, who was appointed ceo last December after running securitization and credit trading, could not be reached.Michele Maffei, managing director and head of global markets for Asia at Standard, declined comment, as did Claudia Bresgen, spokeswoman at HVB in Munich, declined comment.
The staffers will be based in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Standard has made a number of moves in Asia this year, including hiring in Hong Kong and Taiwan (DW, 1/27), and adding an equity derivatives team from Bank of China International (DW, 4/30).
