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Rothschild & Co. has hired former Credit Suisse Group AG banker Michael Speller to lead a new debt advisory business in North America.

The new hire is a bet that a similar Rothschild business in Europe and other parts of the world will do well in the U.S., where the boutique bank has been expanding. The firm in August announced it hired longtime UBS Group AG investment banker James Neissa to build out its North American advisory business, and it opened a Chicago office the following month.

Rothschild's North American debt advisory business plans to counsel clients on how to best sell bonds, loans and other instruments. Unlike big banks, it won't use its balance sheet to backstop offerings or deal as closely with mutual funds, hedge funds and other investors who typically participate in big debt sales. The approach is meant to free the firm from conflicts stemming from working with both debt sellers and buyers.

Mr. Speller formerly served as a managing director in Credit Suisse's leveraged finance origination business, pitching debt deals for the bank's industrial clients. He's due to start his new job in February.

Rothschild is expanding its debt advisory business as private-equity firms and sovereign-wealth funds move into the lending business, partly in response to tighter regulations on banks in the U.S. and Europe.

"Today, you have a market that has been in many ways disintermediated from traditional sources," Mr. Neissa said in an interview Tuesday. "You have pockets of capital all over the world looking for specific areas of investment. We're matching specific pockets of capital with specific needs in ways that in the past was fulfilled by the one-stop shop."

Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 29, 2016 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

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