HSBC is ramping up an effort to grow its investment banking business and build a lending and secondary trading business and has hired Greg Meredith, formerly of NationsBank, to lead the charge. Meredith declined to comment on the bank's plans, but sources at HSBC said the search is on for someone to lead the secondary loan trading desk.
Meredith, head of investment banking and merchant banking, is expected to be hiring in the lending group, and bulking up on investment banking personnel, as well. HSBC bankers said a major focus will be adding to and restructuring the leveraged finance group. HSBC officials declined to comment. Meredith has reportedly already made some changes, moving Chris French and Martin Brown out of leveraged finance and into structuring. French declined to comment, Brown did not return calls.
Sources said Meredith, a well respected banker, will have his work cut out for him building a lending business in a climate where banks are consolidating and a few heavyweights grab an increasingly large percentage of the underwriting business. While a behemoth in its own right, HSBC has historically not been able to get its corporate banking efforts in the U.S. off the ground, one banker said. "This is probably their last ditch effort," said one banker.