The firms that quadrupled in size last year

GlobalCapital recently peered into the world of second party opinion (SPO) providers, businesses that play a crucial but often unsung role in the labelled bond market.

Unsurprisingly, given the enormous hype surrounding everything ESG, these firms have been expanding quickly. But apparently, not quite quickly enough.

At least, that appeared to be the case last year, when issuers planning to execute their maiden green, social or sustainability-linked bonds found that that they were being turned away by overloaded SPO firms.

Well, "turned away" may be a bit strong. In reality, SPO providers would not explicitly turn down work, but they might offer a timeframe that the issuer would find unattractive, forcing them to look elsewhere.

Green bond issuers and their advisers would rather select their SPO providers according to their expertise or the particular demands of their green bond framework. But in the second half of last year, the main question was: "When can you start?"

Fortunately, the situation was not extreme enough to completely clog up the market. Somehow, collectively, the SPO providers managed to cope with a 64% increase in issuance (according to figures from Moody's ESG Solutions).

But the market is expected to grow again this year, and no one wants to be caught short staffed. As a result, SPO providers have been hoovering up graduates with an interest in sustainability like nobody's business, and training them as fast as possible. Several SPO providers have quadrupled their headcounts.

The trouble is, investment banks and just about everyone else on the planet is also looking to staff up in sustainable finance. The SPO providers, with their rigorous in-house training, are beginning to look like finishing schools for ESG capital markets firms.

It's not all one way traffic, though. SPO firms backed by big corporations increasingly have the firepower to lure talent away from the banks. One recent example is Tobias Lindbergh, whom Moody's just hired from Handelsbanken.

For more on this theme, check out this week's story on the SPO providers here. If you are not yet a GlobalCapital subscriber, get in touch with us about a free trial.

GlobalCapital was the first to break the news on Thursday that MUFG had hired former Barclays banker Fabianna Del Canto to a senior role in London, heading up debt capital markets and syndicate for the EMEA region, outside of the EU.

The high profile hire is part of a broader move by the Japanese firm to broaden the scope of its DCM offering in the region beyond investment grade issuers.

To support this strategy, Grant Moyer, until now the head of US leveraged finance, is expanding his remit as head of international levfin, while Uel Barclay is taking over as head of EMEA levfin from Jeff Bennett, who is returning to the US.

Another GlobalCapital scoop on Thursday revealed that two FIG DCM bankers, Tom MacHale and Pernelle Lombard-Latune, had resigned from HSBC.

One of them, MacHale, is moving to Jefferies, which is rapidly building up its FIG DCM team in London, having hired Samir Dhanani and Tom Blackmore from Credit Suisse at the tail end of last year. Dhanani is head of FIG DCM and solutions, while Blackmore is head of FIG DCM.

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