StanChart cutting about 20 jobs in Singapore, London in revamp of lender’s M&A team

By Joyce Koh and Preeti Singh

(Bloomberg) — Standard Chartered Plc is cutting about 20 jobs across places like London and Singapore as the lender restructures its mergers and acquisitions team by absorbing bankers focused on industry coverage, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The London-headquartered bank is also redeploying some of its industry expertise into financing teams or coverage, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is confidential. The aim is to provide more M&A capability as well as reduce overlaps, they said.

A number of roles will “fall away” due to the restructuring, which aims to deliver more to clients as well as maximise returns for shareholders, according to an 8 Aug memo from Tom Willett, the bank’s global head of M&A advisory. The move would result in a little more than 100 staffers in the M&A division, one of the people said.

A StanChart representative confirmed the contents of the memo but declined to comment on the number of jobs affected. He said corporate and investment banking customers are increasingly asking the bank for support on advisory work, together with cross-border risk management and financing. Reuters reported the news earlier.

Earlier, the bank had embarked on a revamp of its corporate and investment banking arm, stripping out layers of regional management in an effort to speed up decision-making and hold managers more accountable for the performance of their businesses.

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