Darcy Lai joins Standard Chartered

Darcy Lai has joined Standard Chartered as regional head of origination and client coverage for Greater China and Japan for wholesale banking.

He will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Sean Wallace. Wallace was promoted to head of origination and client coverage for Standard Chartered in April last year, following the promotion of Vis Shankar to chief executive officer for the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Europe. Wallace is based in Singapore.

Lai’s remit is "deepening client relationships and growing the business across Japan and the Greater China region”, said Standard Chartered in a written statement announcing the appointment. Lai started at Standard Chartered earlier this week.

Lai brings to his new job more than 20 years of experience covering capital markets, investment banking and financial markets. He was at Barclays Capital between June 2001 and March 2009. Lai was head of investment banking and debt capital markets for Asia Pacific when he left and went on an extended sabbatical from investment banking. Some bankers said at the time that Lai’s departure was a sign of the “Lehmanisation” of Barclays as it followed the purchase by the British bank of the North America franchise of Lehman Brothers. Before he joined Barclays, Lai was head of South Asia debt capital markets at Deutsche Bank.