Santander plans to hire about 150 bankers to grow investment banking -sources
By Andres Gonzalez and Jesús Aguado
LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's Santander (BME:SAN) is planning to hire around 150 bankers primarily in the United States as part of its plans to accelerate growth in its investment banking business, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Santander's global corporate and investment banking chief, Jose M. Linares, discussed the plans in a town hall held in New York last week, the sources said. The hires are set to be completed over the next year or so, the people said.
The euro zone's second-biggest lender by market value, led by chair Ana Botin, aims to become a bigger player in investment banking, doubling its franchise in the U.S. to diversify earnings. As part of its efforts to grow the unit, the Spanish bank is taking the chance to hire many bankers from stricken Credit Suisse.
Linares told employees around 60 of those recruits would be managing directors, mainly in the United States but also in the UK and other markets, one of the people said.
So far, the bank has hired more than 20 senior investment bankers chiefly in the United States, Reuters has reported.
As part of the hirings, Linares also announced a reshuffling at the unit, which includes the appointment of David Hermer, a former Credit Suisse banker, as head of its corporate and investment banking business (CIB) in the United States, the people said.
The bank declined to comment.One of Hermer's predecessors Marco Antonio Achon will join the team headed by the global head of Banking and Corporate Finance Darren Jones, one of the sources said.
The changes announced by Linares during the staff briefing also included the appointment of Steven Geller, former head of Global M&A at Credit Suisse, as head of the M&A
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