It took a year and at least one false start, but John Walsh has finally returned to the markets. He turned up at Royal Bank of Scotland, nearly a year after he walked out of his role at CSFB as global head of debt capital markets. His title at RBS is head of North American corporate credit markets.
He has a remit to build a primary and secondary debt business in the US. It?s a greenfield project, which is exactly the kind of role he was looking for. BNP Paribas tried to hire him for a similar role last year. It has a presence in US high-grade debt, though is not even a second-tier player in the US.
Walsh is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the offices of RBS Greenwich Capital, not in RBS Capital Markets in New York. He reports both to Ben Carpenter, co-CEO of Greenwich Capital, and Symon Drake-Brockman, global head of capital markets for RBS in London.
It looks as if RBS might integrate the boutique ? a significant departure for RBS, and yet another change in Greenwich?s role.
Back in 1999 RBS was locked in a battle with Bank of Scotland for NatWest, which had bought Greenwich in 1996.