John Wade, a former Royal Bank of Scotland veteran, has joined Natixis as its head of syndicate and medium-term notes for Asia-Pacific, a move that is part of the bank’s Asian growth push.
Wade, who spent eight years at the UK bank until March this year, was most recently head of debt capital markets and bond/loan syndication for Asia-Pacific and was responsible for managing underwriting risk across bond and loan books.
He was also responsible for building the bank’s multicurrency DCM franchise and also specialised in G3 — dollar, euro and yen — and local currencies, primarily in offshore renminbi, Hong Kong and Singapore dollar-denominated transactions.
Wade’s appointment comes as Natixis, France’s second-largest bank by number of branches, looks to bulk up in Asia.
The bank’s executives told FinanceAsia that it was looking to grow in the region, particularly in structured financing across Greater China and Japan.
"This appointment reflects our long-term commitment to the fixed income capital markets in Asia, including Japan," said Serge Ekue, head of global markets for Asia-Pacific at Natixis in an email reply to questions. "We are pleased to have John in place to direct the product opportunities under the desk, in complement to the development of Natixis global markets in Asia-Pacific."
Natixis, which had the biggest net losses of any French bank following the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings, pared its overseas capital-market activities and has been profitable every quarter since mid-2009.
The appointment also comes off the back of a very strong start to the year for Asian bond issuance. According to Dealogic data, Asia ex-Japan G3 bonds reached a record-breaking $113.1 billion in the first-half of 2014, up 20% from last year’s $93.9 billion during the same period.
Natixis reported a 3% rise in underlying net income to €303 million ($421 million) for the first quarter and said it was on track to meet its 2014-2017 dividend payout targets.
With 16,000 staff globally, Natixis had about 700 workers outside France, of whom 550 were based in Asia, the firm said.
RBS, meanwhile, has seen departures in senior management in the last 12 months. Last year, John McCormick, group chairman and chief executive of RBS Asia-Pacific markets and international banking business, left the institution after 17 years, more than seven of which were spent in Asia.
Wade began his financial career in 1992 with Price Waterhouse in New York. He then moved to Nomura in 1996, also based in the States. From 1997 to 2006, he was with Deutsche Bank’s bond syndication and medium-term note team based in New York and Tokyo.
He holds a master degree of business administration and financial accounting from Rutgers Graduate School Management Newark, New Jersey and a bachelor degree of arts in Italian literature from Rutgers University Newark, New Jersey.
Based in Hong Kong, Wade reports to Devan Selvanathan, Asia-Pacific head of debt platform at Natixis.
