US banks lose talent to rival London firms
A TRIO of investment banks are emerging as the winners from the banking crisis, as they move to hoover up some of the most talented staff in London.
Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital (BarCap) have all been active in the recruitment market since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, taking advantage of freedom from pay restrictions imposed on some US banks as a condition of the Tarp government bailout.
BarCap has taken on some 450 staff in equities alone in the past six months, including Tom Warner, who joined the European equities research team from Tarp recipient Citigroup, and Mark Warham, formerly UK chair of investment banking at Morgan Stanley.
Deutsche Bank has also cast its net wide in the search for new talent, grabbing 12 members of Merrill Lynch’s financial institutions group in a raid that led to a full-blown lawsuit. The bank has hired 14 people at managing director level since September, including Tom Cooper, who came from UBS to be co-chair of global M&A.
Credit Suisse has also lured some high-profile names away from US rivals, including Chris Williams, who joined from Citibank as managing director and vice chairman of investment banking, EMEA.
Like Deutsche, the Swiss bank has raided Merrill Lynch, poaching Jonathan Grundy as head of energy, EMEA and Mark Echlin as head of EMEA industrials.
FAST FACTS RECRUITMENT DRIVE
&9679; BarCap has taken on 450 staff in European equities alone since Lehman Brothers went down and plans to bring in another 250.
&9679; Deutsche Bank has hired 14 people at managing director level since September last year.
&9679; Credit Suisse has hired several dozen senior bankers but does not provide exact figures.