Banks Fuse Equity and Debt Capital Markets

Some of the biggest banks are melding their equity and debt origination teams. While shaking up reporting lines and giving rise to promotions, the moves thus far don't seem to alter headcounts in the affected departments, according to press reports.

Citigroup named co-heads of capital markets origination for several geographic regions, Financial News reported this week, citing an internal memo. Both UBS and JPMorgan also recently created integrated capital markets divisions, according to separate reports published earlier in May. The goal is to increase efficiency and collaboration between businesses, Financial News says.

Citi named John Chirico and Richard Zogheb co-heads of Americas capital markets origination, according to the memo from Jamie Forese, chief executive of markets for the bank's institutional clients group. Chirico had headed equity capital markets and Zogheb had led loans, leveraged and emerging market finance.

Michael Lavelle and Atiq Rehman will co-lead capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in London. Ken Poon and Aamir Rahim were named Asia-Pacific capital markets co-heads. For Japan, Taro Hayashi was named in the memo as sole head of capital markets origination.

At UBS, a new global capital markets group unveiled in January will be led by Roberto Isolani and Matthew Koder, Reuters reported. The story didn't state their previous responsibilities, but said Koder is relocating from Hong Kong to London. As the new group's regional heads, UBS reportedly tapped Tom Fox for North America, David Soanes for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Steven Barg for Asia.

And JPMorgan recently launched an integrated European capital markets origination group headed by Viswas Raghavan, according to Financial News. That unit combines JPM's European debt and equity capital markets, leveraged finance and ratings advisory businesses.