Barclays Hires Shaishav Agarwal, Xiang In Securitized Products Push

Barclays is making two senior hires in its securitized products business as it pushes to expand its reach in the multi-trillion dollar market.

Shaishav Agarwal is joining the British bank as head of US commercial mortgage backed securities after roughly 20 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was global head of commercial real estate capital markets, according to a statement. Agarwal will report to Martin Attea, global head of securitized products origination, it said. 

Guanqing Xiang will step into the roles of co-head of collateralized mortgage obligations as well as head of agency CMBS trading, Barclays said. Xiang previously was a managing director at Bank of Montreal, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’ll report into David Garner, global head of securitized products bond trading at Barclays, the bank said. 

Agarwal and Xiang will be based in New York and start in their new roles in the fourth quarter, it added. 

Securitized products is one of three business areas that Barclays last year described as a “focus” area, according to an investor presentation. The bank has about a 5% market share in the securitized market, the presentation said. 

The roughly $1.8 trillion CMBS market in the US is one of the biggest components of the securitized industry, where a wide variety of debt from auto loans to corporate loans is bundled into bonds of varying size and risk. Sales of CMBS slowed down after the 2023 regional banking crisis but have picked up again this year. 

CMOs represent a roughly $1 trillion market where mortgage backed securities are packaged into new bonds. Generally considered to have minimal credit risk, the bonds are being minted at a brisk pace lately because they often come with floating interest rates that help investors manage their interest rate exposure. 

Barclays posted income of £7.2 billion ($9.8 billion) in the second quarter, up 14% year-on-year, according to its earnings release. The company’s securitized products business sits within its global markets unit, part of the broader investment bank division.