HSBC Taps Goldman Sachs for New Head of Financial Institutions Group--3rd Update
October 05 2018 - 1:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Margot Patrick
LONDON -- HSBC Holdings PLC on Friday said it has hired longtime
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Peter Enns as the global head of
its financial institutions group, a senior hire for the bank six
weeks after a group claiming to comprise employees complained to
the bank's board about a struggle to attract talent.
Mr. Enns was most recently the chairman and chief executive of
Goldman Sachs in Canada and held posts in Asia and the U.S. over 21
years at the U.S. bank. He retired from Goldman Sachs in spring
2017. He'll start at HSBC in the newly created role in late
October.
The anonymous group, in an Aug. 25 memo to the bank's board,
said that HSBC can't recruit and hold on to top-tier staff in the
global banking business.
The memo, which HSBC is treating as a whistleblower complaint,
attacked the co-head of global banking Robin Phillips, citing a
litany of alleged failings in his work and leadership.
Mr. Phillips hasn't commented publicly on the matter, but HSBC
said it is proud of the global banking business and of what Mr.
Phillips and his senior team have achieved in the past few
years.
In a memo sent to his group Friday and seen by The Wall Street
Journal, Mr. Phillips said Mr. Enns "will work with the regional
heads of FIG to build and deepen our relationships across the
client base." HSBC has an "increasingly deep bench of expertise
across our franchise," Mr. Phillips said in a press release.
HSBC said Mr. Enns advised on a number of deals during his
tenure at Goldman, including the $20.5 billion initial public
offering of AIA Group Ltd. in 2010, and the $15 billion sale of
Wachovia in Wells Fargo in 2008. Goldman Sachs chiefs in a memo at
the time of Mr. Enns's retirement announcement said the Canadian
banker had been" instrumental in recruiting and mentoring our next
generation of bankers."
HSBC sought to bolster its global banking business in 2016 by
hiring Matthew Westerman, another senior Goldman banker, as co-head
of banking with Mr. Phillips. He left abruptly last year after 18
months, with no reason given for the departure by him or the
bank.
At the time, current and former employees said his
more-aggressive approach didn't jibe with HSBC's genteel culture.
No formal complaints were lodged against him though, according to
one of the people. The co-head role remains vacant.
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 05, 2018 13:48 ET (17:48 GMT)
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