HSBC will announce that Will Ross, head of structured capital markets Asia-Pacific, is to become co-head of Islamic finance global markets. The position is a new role created by HSBC to try and cement its position in the growing Islamic finance business. Priorities for Ross and his team will be to help drive sukuk issuance, to try and develop new products and to attempt to better integrate HSBC’s Islamic finance business into the firm’s global markets line. Ross, a Canadian banker well-liked by both colleagues and rival debt bankers in Hong Kong, is known as an expert in structuring and has been at the forefront of some of HSBC’s more innovative deals in Asia including the surprise $1 billion covered bond for Korea’s Kookmin Bank last June.
Ross will focus on the liability side of the Islamic finance markets, a source at the bank told Euromoney, while his as-yet unnamed co-head will focus on the asset side (including wealth management, structured products and the like).
Ross will retain oversight of his current team and remain based in Hong Kong. He will now report to Mukhtar Hussain, CEO of the bank’s Islamic finance unit HSBC Amanah, in addition to his current reporting line to Stephen Williams, head of global capital markets, Asia Pacific.