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D E P T H
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TA L E N T ]
T
he new battleground for investment banks has
swiftly become that of attracting and retaining
the best talent the industry has to offer and it’s
something of an open secret that poaching the best
people direct from competitors is often the best tactic.
Take Citigroup for example; the US investment bank
has recorded a strong performance for H1 2018, with
equities up 19% in Q2 compared to the year prior. This
could, in part, be attributed to Citi’s strategic moves
to strengthen its equities team in recent years, all of
which has led to the bank’s structural overhaul in early
September as part of its long-term strategy.
Citi’s efforts have come at a direct cost to its com-
petitors. The bank has made a string of hires from its
rival Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) this year
“If you are building out a business segment or
trading desk, of course you are going to want
people that you can absolutely trust, and
naturally you gravitate towards those you have
worked with previously.”
OLIVER ROLFE, FOUNDER AND CEO, SPARTAN EXECUTIVE
alone, with equities specialists and sales staff swap-
ping their allegiance across North America, Europe,
the Middle East and Africa. Poaching one member
of staff from a rival firm can often turn into a full-on
raid, according to Oliver Rolfe, founder and CEO of a
global executive search firm Spartan Executive, which
specialises in global cash equities talent searches for
major banks.
“There are many, many examples of the fight for
talent that we are seeing in the industry at the mo-
ment,” Rolfe says. “One financial institution will hire a
senior individual in a management role from a major
competitor, and shortly afterward, he or she will bring
some of their former colleagues to the new team. It
makes sense.
“If you are building out a business segment or trad-
ing desk, of course you are going to want people that
you can absolutely trust, and naturally you gravitate
towards those you have worked with previously.
People who will be honest with you, tell what the situ-
ation is, whether good or bad, and that are more likely
to provide you with the guidance that you need.”
46 // TheTrade // Autumn 2018
The fight for talent isn’t just
playing out in New York though,
with European banks also jostling
for a position on the frontline.
Credit Suisse has suffered from a
targeted offensive from its London
counterpart Barclays. Over the
past year, Barclays has appointed
a global head of equities, a global
head of electronic equities, a head
of equities derivatives trading and
a head of equities for Asia-Pacific,
all from Credit Suisse.
Thinning the ranks
Institutions such as Barclays and
Citi, that have targeted talent at
competitor firms, are fairly open
about this strategy as internal
memos are often sent to various de-
partments detailing how poaching
talent from competitors is a process
that banks are firmly committed
to – although no banks were willing
to speak on-record for this feature.
While the process is undoubtedly
complex and will involve a substan-
tial legal element when it comes
to compliance sign-off, the fruitful
results cannot be argued with.
Not only does this approach
swell the ranks of the banks’ own
teams, but it also weakens the
competition, a factor that shouldn’t
be taken lightly as increasing
regulatory pressures continue to
squeeze profits, which in turn
leads to more severe cost-cutting
measures just to maintain margins.
More often than not, headcount is
the first thing to be slashed when
major institutions face a dreaded
restructure to reduce these escalat-
ing costs.
“In a MiFID II world, and during
the years prior, especially after the
crash, the hierarchy has changed
significantly,” Rolfe adds. “In terms
of workforce, the global financial