Santander is building out a US energy team with Credit Suisse credentials
Credit Suisse was a pretty good bank, until the moment it wasn’t. Its rivals respected it, and when it did collapse, they hired its bankers. Some of those rivals are building entire new teams on a Credit Suisse pedigree, such as Santander’s new energy team, based in Houston.
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Santander's new Houston energy team will be headed by newly hired Matt Rollins. An investment banker by trade, Rollins has spent the last two years as a managing director focused specifically on deals involving "low carbon molecules" at Nomura Greentech, the Japanese bank’s sustainable technology and infrastructure team/subsidiary. Rollins joined Nomura from Credit Suisse in 2022, where he was a director in its midstream & low carbon fuels team.
Nomura's Greentech team has evolved since Nomura acquired it in 2019. Greentech was previously a 70-person boutique. Nomura gave it general operating independence but its founder, Jeff McDermott, left in 2023. "Green" issues are not popular with the Trump administration, although Rollins' skillset is in natural gas deals.
Rollins won’t be the only ex-Credit Suisse banker in Santander’s expanded US energy presence. The Spanish bank also hired Prescott Johnson to head up its US Power and Renewables team in New York earlier this year from Bank of America, where he was a managing director. Johnson also joined BofA from Credit Suisse back in 2022.
Santander’s appetite for Credit Suisse people since the latter’s implosion in 2023 has been hefty. It hired David Miller, the former head of Credit Suisse’s investment bank, plus everyone from leveraged finance EDs and capital markets MDs to chief risk officers and Evercore SMDs.
The vacuuming up of Credit Suisse professionals has been mostly grumbled about by insiders for cultural reasons (too sharkish, not team players), but part of that grumbling has been due to the pay disparity between “legacy” Santander people and the new faces, who received in some instances received huge guaranteed bonuses. Juniors from Credit Suisse also received higher salaries than their Santander equivalents.
Santander’s investment bank hiring has been a long-term project. It earmarked €250m in late 2023 to “turbocharge” its growth – and by most calendars, that finishing line is coming up. Perhaps Santander has just struggled to spend the €250m.
Santander declined to comment.
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