Many European banks announced to minimize headcounts this month. One of them is Standard Chartered Bank. The bank closed the high-yield trading desk in Hong Kong previously. A source close to the bank argued that by deciding this action, it does not mean that the bank plans for ending high-yield business. A year ago, Jujhar Singh received a new title for global head of leveraged and acquisition finance. Previously, he was a global head of high-yield capital markets.
Singh’s role in the high-yield business also moved to Ashish Malhotra, as a head of capital markets for East Asia Pacific. Standard Chartered Bank declined to give any further comment about headcounts minimize. Besides Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank also announced the job cuts this month. A source argued that four people left their role in the financing team and DCM. Some received new roles within the bank, but some did not have any roles and left the bank. Deutsche Bank also refused to comment.
A managing director of a headhunting firm in Hong Kong, Jacky Wang argued that last year the bank enjoyed high revenue and overhired. Based on Wang’s view, this over-hiring might lead to some negative effect when the revenue dropped across major business lines in investment banking. Both ECM and DCM, and further cut-off seems inevitable for the banks. Wang also added that the primary market business faced further slumps in the secondary market business.
Furthermore, in the secondary market business, cash business received the effect more than the derivatives business. The only businesses keeping them intact are private wealth management and asset management. Volumes also plunged in Hong Kong’s new equity listing volume as much as 90% this year. This is actually a nine-year low, thus it could put pressure on ECM business.
