SYDNEY: Credit Suisse Group AG has hired a second director for its investment banking and capital markets team in Australia this week, an internal memo sent to staff on Thursday and seen by Reuters showed.

Karla Wynne, the head of strategy and investor relations at petrol supplier and retailer Viva Energy will join Credit Suisse in November to help "expand our franchise in the Consumer, Retail and Healthcare sectors," the memo said.

Before working for Viva, Wynne spent seven years at Bank of America where she led the Equity Capital Markets team until mid-2018, according to the memo, which was confirmed by a Credit Suisse spokesman.

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Like in the United States, bankers in Australia are also dealing with a record backlog of deals that is only expected to grow in the near term as the economy which is rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Credit Suisse also told its staff on Wednesday it had hired a new director for its Financial Institutions Group (FIG) unit.

The banking hiring spree is also partly due to the emergence of two new ambitious local banking houses in Australia that have waged a fierce talent war against global peers.