About us

Frontline Analysts is a high end firm off-shoring credit research for global capital markets. It is run by experienced European credit analysts. All training is carried out by credit analysts with at least 10 years experience on trading floors or in risk management.

We have been operating since 2005, when we pioneered the process of off-shoring opinion-giving credit analysts. Since then we have seconded our researchers to bank European flow and prop desks, the buy side and brokers. Frontline Analysts also has a track record in pan-Asian credit analysis. Clients range from top tier investment banking firms with US HQs, to commercial banking groups in continental Europe and hedge funds. We also operate in the sukuk market.

Frontline Analysts’ researchers have been ranked in Euromoney polls and been quoted on Bloomberg and in Forbes magazine. We have been discussed in columns on Bloomberg and in the Boersen Zeitung.

Management Team

Darren Sharma, CEO
Darren founded Frontline Analysts and is its CEO. He has been a fixed income credit analyst for 14 years, focusing on European banks. He has a wide range of experience in the private sector and as a regulator.

Darren was a director on WestLB’s fixed income credit research team from 2000 - 2005. Previously Darren was a bank credit analyst at Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Buenos Aires, where he executed the first corporate credit derivative in Argentina, and before that at Société Générale in London, where he was the researcher on the last Euromoney Ffr bond of the year. Darren started his career in bond market corporate risk analysis at the Bank of England in 1994 after reading PPE at Oxford and taking a Masters degree in Economics from Birmingham university.

Dermot Gleeson, MD, Head of Training
Dermot has extensive experience as a credit analyst in Europe and Asia, as well as a regulator. He has been with Frontline Analysts since 2005. His previous roles include risk management at Mellon, including counterparty risk and advising insurance clients on solvency issues. From 1996-2003 he was at the Bank of England/FSA, supervising both UK and European banks. In 1992-3 he was an analyst at CLSA in Hong Kong, before which he worked in Treasury for HSBC. Dermot took the top first class degree in his finals at Trinity College Dublin before he took a Masters in economics at the London School of Economics. Dermot is also a CFA charter holder.

Madhu Jayakumar, Operations Officer Bangalore
Madhu Jayakumar has internal finance and operations experience at both fast growing firms and, most recently, with IBM. He holds a Masters degree in Commerce.