Our People

James Garvey is co-founder of Martello Financial Services and a pre-eminent expert in commercial banking, financing and risk management. He has over 32 years of experience in the global financial services sector, specialising in capital markets products and solutions.

Prior to founding Martello Financial Services, James spent nearly 10 years at Lloyds Banking Group as Head of Commercial Banking (CB) Markets where his responsibilities included loan and bond financing, traded markets in foreign exchange, interest rates and credit, and corporate and financial institutions (FI) sales. He was also a member of Lloyds’ Commercial Bank Executive Committee. Previously, James worked at Goldman Sachs for 10 years where he was Partner and Head of Debt Capital Markets for Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA).

James commenced his career in money markets at Citicorp and later held managing director positions at Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) and West Merchant Bank.

James holds degrees in Mathematics and Civil Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has recently completed an Academic Research History Masters at the University of Buckingham.

James is a former Board Member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) and a former Advisory Council Member of the FICC (Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities) Markets Standards Board. Since leaving executive life, James served as a board member of S&P Global Ratings Europe and S&P Global Ratings UK. He is currently Chair of SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Ltd and sits on the board of SMBC Bank International PLC. He is also Chair of Goodbody Stockbrokers in Ireland

James has acted as an expert witness in the past.
“James Garvey provided specialist input to us on a case involving issues around a debt refinancing. He greatly impressed both our Counsel team and our own team in the efficient, comprehensive and authoritative way that he addressed the issues” Philip Young, Partner – Cooke Young and Keidan