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* MUFG, Mizuho ramp up headcount months after staff culls
* Exploiting lull in competition for top financial talent
* Fixed income, compliance and audit staff most in demand
By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise
LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Japan's MUFG and Mizuho
have hired a total of nearly 100 staff in London in the
last 6 months, bolstering their trading and investment banking
teams despite industry concerns over Brexit's impact on
financial services in Britain.
Mizuho has hired more than 25 senior bankers and traders,
while MUFG has hired seven senior investment bankers, an
aviation finance team from Germany's DVB Bank and dozens of back
office risk and compliance staff, information from sources and
internal bank memos seen by Reuters show.
Wall Street and European rivals are moving staff from London
to other European hubs, concerned about being able to keep
serving clients with Britain outside the European Union.
The latest EY Financial Services Brexit Tracker showed 43
financial firms have announced plans to make local hires for
more than 2,400 roles in the EU. The total number of jobs seen
likely to relocate from London to the EU is around 7,000.
Financial lobby group TheCityUK said the financial services
industry employs 1.1 million across Britain, mainly in London.
The Japanese banks had cut back too far and are taking
advantage of a relative lack of competition, headhunters said.
"They have been recruiting for the last four or five months,
and towards the back end of last year, they have really come
back out in force," Ben Harris, senior manager at recruitment
firm Morgan McKinley, said.
"They have taken in some heavyweight individuals away from
other big banks who have been very cautious about adding
headcount," Harris added.
Mizuho has focused on fixed income products, where new head
of global markets Asif Godall has hired bond and derivatives
traders from rivals including Barclays, Deutsche Bank
, and HSBC.
"We've been opportunistic in hiring, and have benefited from
the fact the European banks have retrenched," Godall said.
The strategy is to grow the bank's ability to cross-sell
financial products to its corporate clients, and make better use
of its vast balance sheet as European lenders retreat, he said.
'CROSS-SELLING'
Morgan McKinley's Harris said Japanese banks historically
tended to make deep cyclical cuts to their workforces and
sometimes shed too much in leaner times, leading to quickfire
hiring sprees when market conditions improved.
MUFG offered redundancy to 500 senior London bankers in May,
but is now building back up under new chief for the region John
Winter, with a similar focus on cross-selling.
"The past twelve months have been about bringing in some
strategic hires to support these plans, as well as making some
key internal appointments to ensure that we bring greater
co-ordination and focus to our business," Winter said.
Neither MUFG or Mizuho feature prominently in global
investment banking league tables, sitting outside the top 10
positions for fees, equities, initial public offerings, global
debt and mergers and acquisitions, data from Refinitiv shows.
Mizuho is however ranked number three in global syndicated
loans, while MUFG holds eighth position.
(Editing by Alexander Smith)
