Africa-headquartered Standard Bank has parted ways with its two senior London-based staff responsible for climate finance, emissions trading and carbon project development, it said Tuesday, declining to confirm whether it had exited those businesses altogether.

Geoff Sinclair, a director who built the bank’s climate finance business, left the South African bank last month, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Fenella Aouane, a director of energy and environmental markets responsible for the origination within the carbon trading team and expanding the bank’s carbon project business in Africa, also left earlier this year, she indicated on her profile.

“There are no plans to recruit to fill their roles at this stage,” a spokeswoman for Standard Bank told Carbon Pulse, declining to confirm whether the bank had effectively closed those businesses and exited those markets.

Attempts to reach Aouane and Sinclair were unsuccessful.

Standard Bank was one of the few banks left with emissions trading desks, as many have pulled out of the EU and CDM markets over the past few years due to falling prices, reduced business and increased regulation.

The bank’s CDM project development business had also taken a hit by plummeting CER prices, which have collapsed due to scarce demand, curtailing new investment.

According to UN data, Standard Bank is still involved in 28 CDM projects, including 7 PoAs. The projects are located mainly in Africa and China.

Standard Bank was also the only bank in the past few years to have a presence at Carbon Expo – the world’s largest carbon market conference and trade show held annually in Europe – highlighting the banking sector’s pull-back from the industry.

According to their LinkedIn profiles, Sinclair remains a director on the boards of IETA and CO2Sense CIC, while Aouane is on CMIA’s board and was last year elected as a Conservative local councillor for a ward in London’s Kensington and Chelsea borough.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com