Big loan hire for Standard Bank

Mark Vincent has joined Standard Bank as managing director and global head of loan syndicate and sales. In his new role he will report to Rupert Boyd, global head of syndicate.

Vincent was formerly head of loan syndication at ABN AMRO, and was one of the most high-profile casualties of the bank’s merger with RBS. He left the bank in April this year after a nine-year career, having been head of syndications since 2006.

Vincent is expected to continue Standard’s strategy to build its global syndications business with particular focus on emerging markets. Outside its African home markets, the bank has had success in building a presence in several niche markets such as Ukraine and areas of Islamic finance.

As the credit crunch began to bite last year, much of Standard’s core franchise in smaller Russian and CIS FIs was rumoured to be threatened. This has proved not to be the case and the bank has maintained a strong flow of business this year.

The London-based arm of the bank was also subject of more alarming talk earlier this year when it dispensed with the services of Robert Scott, former head the syndicated loan team, in March. This led to some speculation that it could to pull away from the lending business, but as shown by the appointment of Vincent, these rumours have proved to be unfounded.