Rivals move in on Standard Chartered staff
British bank becomes a hunting ground for poachers after it ran afoul of US regulators
With Standard Chartered running into trouble over its dealings with Iran, potential poachers are circling the bank's Asia-based staff aiming to pick up talent.
People in the financial industry told the South China Morning Post that some rival banks in Hong Kong had recently started approaching employees, mostly middle-ranking ones, at Standard Chartered, which is headquartered in London but has a big presence in Hong Kong.
The British bank struck an agreement last week with New York state financial regulators to pay a fine of US$340 million to settle allegations that it concealed Iran-related transactions worth a total of US$250 billion. The bank faces other challenges with US federal regulators.
And it has just been sued separately in the United States by victims of the 1983 Iran-sponsored terrorist bombing of a US marine barracks in Lebanon for allegedly conspiring with Iran to hide assets.
The bank has declined to comment on the suit.
Recently, many of Standard Chartered's competitors had been aggressively lobbying the bank's staff to join them in Hong Kong or Singapore, one person said. "Some even promised to provide a one-off cash bonus" once the bankers signed on, he said.