Morning Coffee: Female banker of fearsome reputation makes surprise move in London. Prime brokers fomenting the next financial crisis
Debbie Crosbie isn't a 'banker' in the M&A sense, but she does run a bank, and she is doing the kind of deal that will make the actual Financial Institutions Group (FIG) bankers at UBS who are working with her feel vindicated in their career choices.
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
Crosbie is the 53-year-old chief executive of Nationwide, a British building society, with mutual roots that yesterday announced its intention of acquiring Virgin Money for £2.9bn, a move that will a) net the UBS bankers healthy fees and b) allow Nationwide to move into business banking.
It's the largest deal'ever made by a female banker' and will create an entity with £366bn in assets that will also be the second-largest provider of mortgages and savings in the UK. For Crosbie, the Glaswegian daughter of a care worker and engineer who's described variously as «ambitious», «bold», «hard-nosed,» «tough», «articulate» and a «first-class operator», it confirms that she is all those things. She and Citi CEO Jane Fraser, who is also Scottish, but comes from more aristocratic lineage, may want to hang out.
Crosbie's move is said to be making Nationwide's 18,000 staff anxious ahead of the merger. However, she has long indicated a willingness to challenge staff sensibilities. In her previous job at TSB Bank, Crosbie cut the operating team from 15 to 10 and did away with a central committee. Last December, she eliminated Nationwide'swork from home policy and demanded that everyone appear in the office two days a week from January. Her (male) predecessor had said people wouldn't be forced back to their desks. Women in banking have a new role model.
Separately, just as banks decide that prime broking is the place to
Read more on efinancialcareers.com
