HSBC merges Capital Finance unit with Banking Business

As part of its ongoing restructuring strategy, HSBC is merging its capital financing unit with the banking business, as well as moving some large corporate clients from its commercial bank into that unit; as a result, the former head of capital financing, Spencer Lake, will become Vice Chairman of global banking and markets. 

HSBC Holdings is merging its capital financing unit with the banking business and moving some large corporate clients from its commercial bank into that unit.

As a result of the changes, Spencer Lake, formerly global head of capital financing, will become vice chairman of global banking and markets.

“Global banking and markets is being reorganized to bring the product teams much closer to the relationship managers and the clients they serve,” Samir Assaf, chief executive officer of HSBC’s investment banking and trading division, said in an e-mailed statement.

Assaf’s division this week posted a pretax profit of $1 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $85 million a year earlier. The company has been shrinking that unit as part of a plan it laid out in June to cut as much as $5 billion in costs by the end of 2017.

HSBC ranks eighth so far this year among advisers on global mergers and acquisitions, and fourth in Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.