Greg Guyett took the reins of HSBC’s global banking and markets division in October 2022, a year into a worldwide deal drought and just before Wall Street banks made their deepest job cuts since 2008.

But the former JPMorgan banker said the UK lender’s dealmaking unit had largely resisted the wave of cost-cutting, instead focusing on picking up senior talent from competitors as it prepares to embark on a fresh build-out of its investment bank, he told Financial News in a wide‑ranging interview.