Top Stories

JP Morgan has hired William Vereker, former global co-head of investment banking at UBS and business envoy to former UK prime minister Theresa May, to be vice-chairman for investment banking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Moody’s Investors Services has beefed up its coverage of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, naming a veteran analyst as its first global head of ESG.

Société Générale has appointed a new head of debt capital markets for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to replace Cécile Camilli.

Shane Edwards, former global head of solutions and structuring and global head of equity derivatives at UBS, has joined Diginex, a digital asset firm.

Kristina Church has moved from Barclays to Lombard Odier Investment Managers as a senior investment strategist for sustainable investment, as the firm seeks to grow its offering in this area.

Olaf Diaz-Pintado has been named head of Goldman Sachs’s cross markets group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while the bank has appointed new regional heads for its financial and strategic investors group.

The European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed this week that it asked two financial institutions to take “remedial actions” to meet guidance levels of Pillar 2 capital.

Seen with cynical eyes, the launch of JP Morgan’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) is simply an attempt to expand its emerging markets footprint — already the largest in the business — by capitalising on two trends: the wave of cash fleeing low yields for EM, and the unassailable momentum of the socially responsible investment movement.

JP Morgan has created a Development Finance Institution (DFI), which will see its investment bank originate and distribute assets scored on their developmental impact. But specialists have questioned the bank’s ambitions and raised concerns about how this unit will operate.

HSBC is looking for a new head of corporate finance coverage to replace Matthew Wallace, who is quitting the firm. Meanwhile, Simon Derrick and Michael Ellam have been handed new jobs as the bank reorganises the way it covers investors and public sector institutions. In Asia Pacific, Rami Hayek is leaving his post.

A trade in Orpéa that mixed an auctioned block trade with a wall-crossing process left equity capital markets players bristling this week. But while some bankers disliked the method of bank selection, others told Sam Kerr and Aidan Gregory that the process worked for the issuer and investors.

UBS’s investment bank spent around $80m from restructuring related to personnel at the end of last year. The Swiss bank has also said it will look into partnerships with other banks for its investment bank.