Bank of America’s newest FIG banker came courtesy of Barclays
Banks have been doing great this year – both traders and bankers have enjoyed bumper years. But it’s not just big banks that are hot, and non-bank lenders are growing too, even if the financing they need is a bit different.
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David MacGown joined Bank of America this month as Head of Americas Specialty Finance, based in New York. He joined the firm from Barclays, where he spent five years, and was also head of Americas specialty finance. He was at Credit Suisse before that - a few years ahead of the curve of all his colleagues that joined the British bank when the Swiss one collapsed back in 2021.
Specialty finance is a type of asset-backed financing – pooling together car loans, credit card debt, equipment leases and the like and lending against them. MacGown’s background is in the financial institutions group (FIG) of banking, and while this usually means working with banks, specialty finance usually goes to non-bank lenders. Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment.
Specialty finance is doing reasonably well. A market update from Houlihan Lokey earlier this year noted that M&A transaction value in specialty finance was $59.5bn across 2025, and transaction value was up by 22% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. If that trend holds throughout 2026, transaction value should reach $73bn, although transaction count is set to decline.
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