OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2011. HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector bank in the country, has appointed Rakesh Singh as its Head of Investment Banking. Mr. Singh will be responsible for building loan syndication, project financing, corporate finance and advisory and debt and equity capital markets business. He will report to Mr. Harish Engineer, Executive Director. Mr. Singh is an MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad and has over 17 years of experience, largely on the debt side.

He joins HDFC Bank from Rothschild, India where he was the Managing Director and Co Head - Financing Advisory. Earlier, he has held key positions in Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank and ANZ Investment Bank among others. His areas of expertise are debt capital markets, structured finance and financing advisory. At Rothschild, India Mr. Singh was responsible for providing financing solutions and corporate finance advice particularly in the areas of acquisitions, debt refinancing, equity raising, debt restructuring, corporate restructuring and recapitalisation among others.

Welcoming Mr. Singh, Mr. Engineer said, "We are delighted to have Rakesh at the helm of our Investment Banking. It is an extremely important business for us, and will only grow in importance as we go along. Rakesh possesses what to me is a rare blend of experience, knowledge, and expertise, and, also enjoys the respect of his colleagues and industry peers. We are confident our Investment Banking business will scale greater heights under him. We wish him good luck."

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Singh said," We shall strive to complement the vast corporate banking relationships of HDFC Bank by offering investment banking advice and financing and add to the goodwill the bank enjoys with clients. Our endeavour will be to commit ourselves to provide optimal long term solutions to clients and build relationships on trust and commitment."

Mr. Singh also serves on the Advisory Board of SNEHA Mumbai, an NGO facilitating healthcare services to women and children in Mumbai slums.