In 2012, RBS ranked 16th in the league of bookrunners for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) financial institutions' hybrid capital issuance, according to data provider Dealogic. In the year to the end of July 2013, it was running fifth. This was n flash in the pan but the result of a plan by the bank to turn hybrid issuance into a core strength. The initiative was a natural corollary of the investment bank's new strategic focus on fixed income. It also reflected the undeniable fact that RBS was devoting as much attention as any other institution to repairing its own balance sheet, so why not make a virtue out of necessity? In January 2012, the bank hired doubly qualified UK solicitor and US attorney 'AJ' Davidson, taking him away from Citibank and putting him into a new RBS Markets post of head of hybrid capital and balance sheet solutions, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. After eight years in private practice, Mr Davidson had been a director in Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's debt capital markets (DCM) execution and structuring group before joining Citibank's DCM new products group as a director in 2010.
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