(Bloomberg) -- Toronto-Dominion Bank hired a significant risk transfer banker from rival Bank of Montreal, the latest move to poach talent in a sector growing at a double-digit pace.
TD said Geoffrey Soal is joining as a managing director in charge of SRT origination, having been a director at BMO's risk & capital solutions desk. Both Canadian lenders have used SRTs to pass on some of the credit risk of loans to private investors, part of a wave of deals on both sides of the Atlantic.
The global SRT market is expected to expand 11% annually on average in the next two years, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey earlier this year. That's driving up salaries for SRT experts, according to Edward James, the founding partner of credit industry recruitment firm RCQ Associates.
"We are typically seeing people move for a 20% plus uplift in compensation," James told Bloomberg News.
A managing director responsible for SRT at a bank should expect total compensation of up to £1 million ($1.35 million), according to data compiled by RCQ. A counterpart at an investment firm heading up an SRT team should expect as much as double that.
In the latest buyside move, Erion Peci will join Aegon Asset Management in George Nijborg's Insured Strategies team, having previously been at Klarna, Aegon said. Peci declined to comment. Soal, who will report to the global head of TD's Asset Securitization Group Brad Purkis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest hires also include:
- Crescent Capital Group hired Juan Grana, who was head of origination at Chorus Capital Management, to lead its bank capital solutions team, according to a recent statement; Doran Chernichen, formerly at Standard Chartered Plc, is also joining Crescent as a managing director in Grana's team.
- The California Public Employees' Retirement System hired Mascha Canio from Dutch pension fund PGGM as its new private debt investment portfolio head.
- Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA hired Francois Belot, previously JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s head of significant risk transfers, as executive director on its credit solutions trading desk.
The moves show insurance firms are also strengthening their footprint in SRTs, either directly or through their asset management firms. Crescent Capital is a unit of Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial Inc.
Insurers are emerging as a key buyer for SRTs, along with pension, sovereign wealth and hedge funds. SRTs allow banks to insure loans against default by selling credit-linked notes to these investors. That bolsters their solvency ratios, or frees up capital to pursue growth.
"Buyside SRT moves still remain the most popular and frequent destination for those at banks," said James. However, "moves to insurers are increasingly common."
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