July 6 (Reuters) - HSBC has appointed three senior bankers to its capital markets and advisory team in Saudi Arabia, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday revealed, as the bank continues to seek to strengthen its presence in the Gulf region, the wider Middle East and Turkey.

Pierre Fayyad, formerly of Goldman Sachs, has joined the bank as head of mergers and acquisitions, and will work with HSBC’s regional team to prepare and execute major deals.

Chris Johansson joined from HSBC Continental Europe as a director in the capital markets team, while Andrew Beder moved from Singapore to head the bank’s leveraged finance and acquisitions business in Saudi Arabia.

These appointments, which are subject to regulatory approval, aim to enhance the bank’s ability to prepare and execute deals for its corporate, sovereign, and financial institution clients across the region.

These steps come as HSBC presses ahead with a broader strategic push in the Gulf region, which the bank has described as a key growth market benefiting from increasing cross-border investment, deal-making and capital flows between the Middle East and Asia.

While HSBC is scaling back parts of its global operations as part of a restructuring process led by Chief Executive George Elhadery, the bank is seeking to focus its efforts more on its advisory and capital markets businesses in Asia and the Middle East.

Just over a week after the outbreak of war with Iran, Al-Hudeiri said that HSBC remained confident in the economic prospects of the Gulf states and their long-term growth trajectory, stressing the importance of the region to the bank's strategy.