CIBC hires energy bankers from RBS in London

Canadian banks have been steadily picking off employees from struggling foreign rivals over the past five years, and the trend continues with the investment banking unit of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce hiring a London-based team of energy specialists away from Royal Bank of Scotland.

CIBC said in an internal announcement that it had hired Manuel Santiago as a managing director, Sameer Pethe as an executive director and Wei Loon Yap as a director.

Mr. Santiago, the most senior hire, was RBS's head of oil and gas for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to that he was head of oil and gas advisory for Credit Agricole. (His LinkedIn page is here.) He will report to Mark Horsfall, who CIBC lured from Morgan Stanley just over a year ago to be the bank's new global head of energy investment banking.

Also, CIBC recently hired Chung Kim from Desjardins to work on the Toronto equity sales desk. He will be an executive director, focusing on hedge funds.