Ashish Malhotra to join StanChart as new head of syndicate Asia

Ashish Malhotra will be joining Standard Chartered as its new head of syndicate Asia, a source confirmed with FinanceAsia. He will be based in Hong Kong and report to Aaron Russell Davison, the head of global bond syndicate for Standard Chartered.

Malhotra left Bank of America Merrill Lynch late last week — a surprising departure as he had just been promoted to head of DCM for Asia a month ago. He is currently on gardening leave.

It is possible that the opportunity to work at a different firm — with a growing footprint in both local currency and dollar bonds — had some appeal. Standard Chartered is placed second in G3 bonds for Asia excluding Japan, according to Dealogic, and it has been steadily climbing league tables during the past few years. Unlike previous years, it is now considered a serious contender by banks on the street and, like its main rival HSBC, has been leveraging off its lending book to win bond mandates.

However, the bank has also seen a fair share of departures. On the high-yield front, Standard Chartered saw the departure of two high-yield bankers last week: Yung Tan, head of the high-yield product group for Northeast Asia and greater China, and Shu Duan, an associate director within the same group, have both left the bank. Tan reported to Peter Szekely, Standard Chartered’s head of global high-yield product. He had worked at Standard Chartered for about three years and had previously also worked at Deutsche Bank.

Last month, Anthony Arnaudy, head of debt capital markets for Northeast Asia also left the bank.

A spokeswoman for Standard Chartered declined to comment. Yung Tan also declined to comment.