Wall Street Beaten in Southeast Asia Opens Door for Maybank

In a year when many of its overseas investment-banking rivals are cutting jobs in response to dwindling profits, Malaysia’s largest lender is grappling with the opposite problem.

“Our guys are working flat out,” said Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, chief executive officer of Malayan Banking Bhd.’s investment bank, in an interview in Singapore. “To grow further, we need to recruit. For the number of deals we’re doing, the kind of expansion plans we have, we need to have people.”