HSBC staff with knowledge of yuan trading could escape the bank's massive lay-off plan as the lender moves to make London a hub for the currency.
The bank, the largest lender in Europe, yesterday announced it was appointing Paul Gooding, who has headed their European credit trading unit for the past seven years, to lead HSBC's team helping London to become an offshore yuan centre. 'Given Gooding's strong markets and product knowledge, he is ideally suited to drive this initiative,'' HSBC said in the appointment statement.
His team will include Hong Kong-based executives Candy Ho, the bank's head of RMB business development for the Asia Pacific, and Thomas Poon, Hong Kong's head of business planning and strategy.
HSBC last year announced plans to lay off 30,000, or 10 per cent of its total workforce, by the end of 2013. This includes 3,000 in Hong Kong.
Jerry Chang, managing director of headhunter Barons & Co, said bankers with knowledge of the yuan did not need to worry about job opportunities. 'The yuan is red hot and Hong Kong, Shanghai and London all want to expand into yuan trading centres,' Chang said. 'This means bankers or other professional specialists in yuan are most wanted in the job markets these days.'
HSBC is not alone in boosting its yuan operations. London-headquartered Standard Chartered Bank as well as Australia's ANZ are also expanding their yuan teams. British law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer recently also hired lawyers to focus on the issue of yuan-denominated products.