High-flying investment bankers moving from US to Asia

Experts believe that the number of top bankers leaving the US for Asia is set to increase as a result of the credit squeeze.

As investment banking profits are squeezed in US and Europe by the credit crunch, institutions are looking to Asia where many Chinese and Hong Kong firms are flush with cash, having raised capital by listing shares recently.

Dealogic, which supplies IT solutions to the banking industry, said the number of acquisitions by private equity in Asia, not including Japan, increased 15% in the first 3 months of the year while global deals declined.

Vikram Gandhi, head of Credit Suisse’s Global Financial Institutions Group, is transferring to Hong Kong to personally oversee the firm’s corporate finance business in the region.

Mr Gandhi, who will continue to run the group’s Americas business, is the latest in a long line of dealmakers to relocate from New York to Hong, these include executives from Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Former executive with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, Scott Moeller, said investment bankers follow the money and with sovereign wealth funds having a lot of money and with Asia having escaped the worst of the credit crunch and with the crunch having hit the US and Europe the hardest, it is not surprising at all.

Mr Moeller, who is currently a Professor at the Cass Business School, added once you get critical mass in a location, it begins to snowball and that is what is happening in Asia.

However, Mr Moeller concluded by saying London or New York will not be losing their crowns as leading financial centres any time soon.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: High-flying investment bankers moving from US to Asia