The headlines have generally not been kind to ANZ this week. The Australian newspaper reports that ANZ’s former global head of fixed income, Rob O’Callaghan, is one of those embroiled in a regulatory probe into the manipulation of the Australian interbank interest rate. And the firm has been fined NZ$19m after admitting to misleading behaviour in the sale of interest rate swaps to farmers in New Zealand.
There’s better news from ANZ in Asia, however. In yet another example of ANZ’s ability to poach heavy-hitters from large firms, it has recruited Tracy Ong as chief representative, ANZ Malaysia. She joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Malaysia, where she was most recently managing director, head of corporate banking.
As we’ve pointed to in the past, ANZ has been hiring aggressively at the senior level in Asia this year Share on twitter, especially in corporate banking, as part of its reinvigorated “super regional” strategy to take market share from the likes of Citi and HSBC. It swooped on BAML only last month, hiring Huang Xiaoguang, co-head of global corporate and investment banking in China for the US bank, as its China CEO. Farhan Faruqui, the former head of global banking in Asia Pacific at Citi, provides another recent example – he joined ANZ in August as chief executive of international banking, based in Hong Kong.
“It says something about the franchise we have that we are continuing to attract some people of strong experience and strong reputation in the marketplace,” Andrew Geczy, ANZ’s CEO for international and institutional banking, said in November. Back in July, Geczy, who joined ANZ himself from Lloyds last year, told analysts in Hong Kong that ANZ was aiming to poach staff from Citi, Standard Chartered and HSBC. He should have added BAML to the list.
Meanwhile:
Audacious last-minute pitch wins Morgan Stanley sole share placement rights for $4.8bn Ping An deal. (Reuters)
Would bringing back a lunch break help SGX avoid more software problems? (Straits Times)
An employee of the People’s Bank of China has shot dead two bank officials and injured two others following a dispute over money. (International Business Times)
Why China’s deposit guarantee scheme is, in fact, hugely risky. (Quartz)
UOB Kay Hian makes prediction for Straits Times Index by end-2015. (Business Times)
UOB appoints new advertising agency after “long-fought pitch”. (Mumbrella)
Indian bank employees launch one-day strike. (Economic Times)