January, 20 , 2010

RBC Capital Markets appointed Blair Fleming as head of U.S. investment banking to help lead an expansion of its business outside Canada.Fleming, 48, oversees corporate finance industry groups, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance and restructuring in the U.S. with the new role, the Toronto-based bank said today in a statement. Fleming, who joined RBC in 1986, is based in New York.RBC Capital Markets has been expanding its U.S. business, hiring more than 100 senior bankers in the past year and adding new industry expertise.

The investment banking unit of Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest bank by assets, created U.S. groups for transportation and restructuring. “Adding people while U.S. banking has been in turmoil provides the potential for growth without the negative capital implications of an acquisition,” Desjardins Securities analyst Michael Goldberg said today in a note. RBC’s transportation group is led by Michael Coyne, who was hired from Piper Jaffray Cos. RBC hired former UBS AG banker Jeff Gelles for the restructuring advisory and finance group. He’s joined by Erwin Mock, who also worked at UBS.