HSBC has decided to focus more on the asset-backed securities market and is building out its team in London. Scott Dickens, who was hired this summer from Bear Stearns to spearhead the European ABS and structured bond initiative (BW 5/17), has recently made four new hires and more are in the pipeline. "We are on track to rank 15th in the European ABS league tables by the end of 2004, up from 34th in 2003," said Dickens, adding that he is targeting a top-10 ranking one year from now. Meanwhile, the bank is also beefing up in the U.S. under group head Michael Normile (BW, 6/21).
On the structured bond side of the business, Marion Thomas, of the conduit securitization team at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, and Hervé Nedellec, on the structured capital markets team at ABN AMRO in London, have both been hired as managers. They will report to Katrina Haley and Ann Lond-Caulk, co-heads of the structured bond group at HSBC, whose coverage includes corporate securitizations, project bonds, and infrastructure financing. "We've been extremely busy this year and these are key hires just to keep pace with the business," said Haley. She noted that while HSBC is later to the market than competitors, the bank has the infrastructure and franchise that clients are looking for.
At RBS, Thomas reported to David Viney, head of conduit securitization, and at ABN AMRO Nedellec reported to Oleg Pankratov, European head of structured capital markets.
On the asset-backed securities side of the business, James Whetman, a director in securitization at CIBC World Markets in London, will join the U.K. financial institutions origination and execution team as an associate director, and Leonor Pinto, an associate director at Banco Finantia in Lisbon, has been hired for the Southern European origination and execution team as a manager. Both Whetmen and Pinto will report to Dickens.
At CIBC, Whetman reported to Robina Barker-Bennett, head of credit structuring in London. At Banco Finantia, Pinto reported to Pedro Banitas, structured finance director in Lisbon.