A slow summer week, but plenty of hiring news. Several banks have been seeking FIG bankers, prompted by a buzzing market (with a path to further growth, as more European countries pass TLAC debt laws), as well as by certain particular circumstances. NatWest Markets has been building up its FIG franchise, hiring Chris Agathangelou on syndicate, James Marriot and Barbara Scalongne on origination; Mizuho started one more or less from scratch, with Giles Parker and Daniel Shore joining the DCM team last year, while the tragic passing of Morgan Stanley’s Romain Etienne has left the American firm short-handed.
Agathangelou’s move led to Nomura hiring from Deutsche, which, in turn, has led Deutsche to hire from Crédit Agricole. None of the moves are exactly one for one — moves give managers a chance to tweak their teams — but it keeps recruiters busy.
There’s also movement on the public sector side. Andrew Salvoni, head of SSA syndicate is leaving Morgan Stanley, while Andrea Jelic is heading out of HSBC’s origination team to join RBC — the second such move in just a few months. Peter Riera, a FIG focused banker who worked on HSBC’s New York desk, before returning to London with the bank, jumped ship to RBC’s origination team in the end of April.
In terms of hiring bullishness, though, Barclays still seems to be in a class of its own.
The bank’s second quarter results prompted a robust defence of trading businesses from chief executive Jes Staley — and a more classical attitude to winning market share (hire good people, allocate lots of capital) than lots of other firms, who are sticking to their lines about selective additions, doing more with less, improvements in systems and IT, and investments in e-trading and AI). Barclays is surely ploughing a fair bit of cash into its IT as well, but it’s also hiring big names.
The latest is Stephen Dainton, who will head the bank’s equities business — a subject close to the heart of Tim Throsby, president of Barclays International and chief executive of the investment bank, who ran JP Morgan’s equities business before following Staley to Barclays.
Dainton joins after 14 years at Credit Suisse, during which he rose to become co-head of global markets EMEA. He’s also worked at Goldman and at DLJ in New York.
The hire comes after a string of other heavyweight hires, including Filippo Zorzoli, who will run macro distribution for EMEA and Asia, and global solutions sales, and Kirsten Macleod to run US FX sales. Other MD-level hires include BAML’s Paolo Minerva, who will join the bank as “head of sourcing” for its European distressed debt business.
Less cash has been splashed on the origination business so far (though Cecile Hillary’s hire as head of asset finance solutions surely counts) but there’s less rebuilding to do. Staffing and capital cuts under Antony Jenkins fell disproportionately on markets, with a particular accent on macro and the funkier end of credit trading, leaving primary markets to pay the bills in the lean years.
Despite all the hiring, Barclays still has targets for its cost-income ratio to come down, so it can’t be too profligate — but at a time when some of its rivals are feeling rather less aggressive, there’s market share up for grabs.