Credit Suisse Banker Who Created ESG Swaps Gets Senior UBS R

(Bloomberg) -- The Credit Suisse executive who built an ESG debt-swap market that’s now attracting some of the world’s biggest banks has secured a senior role within UBS Group AG, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. Ramzi Issa, whose latest role was as global head of credit investor products structuring at Credit Suisse, will oversee global structured credit and sustainable credit products at UBS, following this year’s state-engineered takeover, the memo showed. Issa’s appointment signals that Credit Suisse bankers can win top roles at the combined bank if they have expertise that UBS sees as useful. Thousands of Credit Suisse staff are otherwise expected to lose their jobs as UBS cuts businesses it doesn’t want. A spokesperson for UBS declined to comment, and Issa didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Issa has played a central role in creating the modern debt-for-nature-swap market, which is designed to help governments refinance existing debt at more favorable terms in exchange for environmental pledges. Though a similar concept had existed previously, Credit Suisse was the first bank to arrange deals that allowed institutional investors to participate in the new financing. Under Issa, Credit Suisse retired about $2.3 billion of debt for governments spanning Belize to Ecuador, substituting that for about $1.2 billion of new financing and freeing up funds for environmental protection. Since then, a number of global banks has voiced interest in entering the market for ESG debt swaps, including Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and Citigroup Inc. Bank of America Corp. completed its first swap in August, becoming the second bank besides Credit Suisse to have arranged such a deal. Analysts at Barclays have estimated that the debt-for-nature-swap market has the potential to reach about $800 billion. Bankers with an environmental, social and governance focus in their job descriptions are less likely to be hit by cuts than many of their peers, analysts at Barclays said at the beginning of the year, citing their own research. Standard Chartered has since hired a number of ESG bankers who used to be at Credit Suisse. Issa said back in May that he was actively looking for new debt-swap deals, adding at the time that he was “very optimistic.” ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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