HSBC hires giraffe-campaigning trader to lead transactional FX business
HSBC has poached a director from Deutsche Bank to lead its transactional FX business in another example of a significant senior hire at the UK bank.
Greg Edwards joined HSBC in October as global head of transactional FX, according to sources close to the situation. This follows a near six-year stint at Deutsche Bank, where he was latterly head of eFX sales and distribution for Europe.
While Edwards has been working in investment banking since the mid-1990s, he also runs two charities which aim to highlight the declining number of giraffes in the world. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, where he is chairman, trustee and treasurer has been going since 2009, and aims to put a clear conservation plan in place for the animal.
Meanwhile, the Girry Trust – named after his childhood toy giraffe – was launched in 2013 and aims to raise awareness of the declining population of giraffes. There were estimated to be 140,000 giraffes in Africa in 1999, a figure that has slipped to an estimated 80,000 today.
"It might sound a bit silly, but I when was very little I really identified with them," Edwards said previously. "I was very tall for my age as a child, I was very quiet and I loved walking, so I had sort of a natural affinity with them."
HSBC said during its second quarter results this year that, as well as continued compliance recruitment, foreign exchange would be a priority and that it expected it to grow, despite a decline in revenues during the period.
The bank has been on something of a hiring driving, bringing in senior bankers like James Simpson as head of M&A during the summer and Kristian Terling to lead its Nordic region banking business. HSBC has said that it needs another 35 bankers ranging from managing directors down to analysts.
