HSBC's Sean Henderson moves to Australia

Industry veteran Mark Mallia will join HSBC as the firm's new head of debt syndicate for Asia-Pacific, replacing Sean Henderson who is transferring to Sydney.

Rod Sykes moves to global banking to focus on commercial banking coverage and his previous role is split between Alexi Chan and Sean Henderson.

FinanceAsia spoke with HSBC's Dilip Shahani and Sean Henderson about Europe's credit crisis and its implications for Asia.

The UK bank said the sale was part of its "simplification" strategy and follows the sale of its life insurance business in Singapore to Allianz and Indonesian retail book to OCBC; Blackstone described the deal as "the largest home loan portfolio transaction globally".

Interest rates and sluggish M&A activity have dimmed loan syndication across Asia; bright spots are with sectorial opportunities.

David Bailey will return to Australia from his current role as head of Citi’s cross border capital markets in New York.