Barclays builds FIG team

While some banks are planning for further cut-backs and pay-caps, others are taking advantage of the economic downturn to expand. Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, is doing just that, having hired Steven Sun as managing director of its financial institutions group (FIG) for Asia-Pacific. 

As regional head, Sun will lead the firm's Asian FIG team and will be responsible for driving business development activity with clients, developing strategies with Barclays Capital's country coverage and M&A teams, and product delivery. He will report to Darcy Lai, regional head of investment banking, and to Jeff Weiss, global head of financial institutions.

Sun joins Barclays Capital from UBS Investment Bank where he spent the last nine years as managing director and joint head covering Asian financial institutions with heavy emphasis on strategic transactions and equity financing. Prior to that he spent a number of years with Merrill Lynch, establishing its Asian financial institutions business. Barclays officials say they headhunted Sun, who is based in Hong Kong. We were unable to reach Sun for comment.

Sun's appointment continues the expansion of Barclays Capital's regional investment banking business. Since November the firm has hired at least 10 new FIG bankers in Japan, several of whom are former Lehman Brothers bankers.

Sun's position is new at the firm. Barclays did have a team within its debt capital markets division that covered financial institutions, but that was for the set of investment banking products it offered prior to its acquisition of Lehman's operations in the US. As part of the firm's expansion into M&A and eventually equities following the integration of the acquired business, it is building up its sector coverage team to enhance the bank's capabilities in providing advisory expertise for the entire spectrum of products it now offers (as compared to debt and risk management products in the past).

"I am delighted to welcome Steven to Barclays Capital," says Lai. "His appointment complements and strengthens our existing financial institutions group and further enhances the build-out of our investment banking platform."

Meanwhile, other banks are still in the midst of making cut-backs or are seeing bankers leave on the back of bad news or forecasts related to their incomes. On February 10, Switzerland's banking regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), which has been appointed by the government to approve bonus payments at UBS as part of the bank's bailout package, released its diktat on compensation. Finma has allowed UBS to pay employees variable remuneration to the tune of SFr1 billion ($858 million) that had been committed earlier and which the Swiss bank is legally obliged to pay. Of this, SFr700 million will be paid in cash. UBS is also allowed to pay out a further SFr1.2 billion in cash as discretionary payments, mostly to lower and mid-ranking employees. Discretionary payments are capped based on the employment level, but Finma clarified that the limits are largely intended to affect employees in the middle and upper salary segments.

Off the record, several bankers say this move by Finma will lead to an exodus of bankers to other firms who are prepared to pay more.