RBC Snags BofA's Meyer as Part of Latest Push into U.S. Capital Markets

Royal Bank of Canada continues its hunt for Wall Street superstars and a stronger foothold among America's top investment banks.

After luring Citibank's Henry Michaels, James Caldwell of Bank of America, and John Case of UBS AG last year, RBC Capital Markets announced last week that it's now also snagged Michael Meyer, formerly of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Michaels, who was responsible for institutional debt and equity sales worldwide at Bank of America, joined the Canadian bank to become managing director and head of high yield/loan sales and trading in the firm's U.S. fixed income and currencies business in New York, where he reports to Jonathan Hunter, global co-head of fixed income and currencies.

Meyer, who has some 20 years' experience in building capital-markets businesses New York and London, will work to build the firm's non-investment grade sales and trading platform, staying in close contact with regional and global partners, as well as banking teams across the firm's high yield, syndicated loans, and leveraged finance arenas.

His hire is part of RBC's new master plan for the U.S. Only weeks ago, the Toronto-based bank - Canada's largest - announced its desire to join the ranks of America's top 10 investment giants.

The firm's enhancing its stable of high-caliber capital-markets experts across the Atlantic as well. For instance, RBC said last week it would expand into Euro Government bond trading in London with the hire of Diego Megia as a managing director for rates trading in Europe. Megia hails from BNP Paribas, where he was head of the European rates trading business. He's also been with Commerzbank in Frankfurt and Barclays Capital in London.

"We are still moving forward with making additional hires," Michelle Braaten, RBC director of international recruitment and strategy tells eFinancialCareers News. Braaten confirmed RBC still wishes to push into the top tier of U.S. investment banks and till plans to "leverage its traditional mid-market strength in the U.S. and extend its strategy to expand its base up into the mid- and large-cap company segments (clients up to $10 billion), which is consistent with the state of its global platform across its capital markets businesses."

RBC Capital Markets investment banking client specialties include real estate, consumer products, financial institutions, healthcare, aerospace, defense, and municipal transportation, Braaten says.