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Ehsun Zaidi: one of the leading bankers in Islamic finance |
The US bank poached from Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) Ehsun Zaidi, previously head of capital markets, and Omair Mooraj, previously head of global project finance, syndication, and structured finance. Ghassan Abdul Karim, head of the Middle East at JPMorgan, says: "Ehsun Zaidi and Omair Mooraj are among the leading professionals in the Islamic finance field." The firm also hired Rody Yared, head of equity capital markets and syndicate at Shuaa Capital, the leading regional investment bank based in Dubai.
JPMorgan will hope that these hires will give it the big push that it needs if it wants to become a top-tier player in the region, and especially in Islamic finance, where it trails far behind rivals such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Barclays Capital.
The US firm was not even in the top 30 banks for completed Islamic financings in the first nine months of 2007, according to the Islamic Finance Information Service (IFIS), a data provider. Moreover, it has not been involved in a single sukuk bond for a Middle East borrower this year – its only sukuk transaction in 2007 has been for Khazanah, the Malaysian state investment company.