Morning Coffee: French bank cuts female ex-JPMorgan MD, others. Why it's hard to leave Citadel
As we've noted in recent weeks, things have been afoot at BNP Paribas. Previously, they had mostly involved the rates team, which has been hit by a string of exits, voluntary and otherwise. But now they also involve the emerging markets credit team, which has been ejecting people not long ago hired.
Click here to follow our new WhatsApp channel, and get instant news updates straight to your phone 📱
They include Trang Nguyen, a London-based MD and BNP's global head of emerging markets credit strategy. Nguhen was formerly a New York-based emerging markets strategist at JPMorgan for nearly 15 years, and was lured to BNP Paribas' London office in November 2022, possibly with rumours of the superior canteen. Two years later, she's out again.
Bloomberg says BNP has also disassociated itself with five men. They are: Bo Bazylevsky, an MD in emerging markets trading; its London- and New York-based heads of emerging-market credit sales; Kalpesh Suchdev and Mike Robinson; a trader Felipe Restrepo; and a sales director David Hurtares.
Bazylevsky was hired two years ago from Stifel. Suchdev joined from JPMorgan six years ago. Robinson joined from Morgan Stanley eight years ago. Restrepo had been there for a decade. Hurtares only joined as a director from Mizuho in July 2023.
BNP's fixed income division hasn't been doing so well recently. The layoffs are a reminder that the practice of letting people go in the fourth quarter before bonuses isn't restricted to American banks. It's also a reminder that European banks aren't a safe haven for people leaving big US banks, and that this applies equally to women. After being compelled to pay £2.1m ($2.8m) to Stacey Macken, a product manager in its prime brokerage division in 2021, BNP has been attempting to increase the representation of women in London and to ensure that half of its new hires are women. Nguyen's short-tenure might give some pause for thought.
Separately, if you work for hedge fund Citadel, you may find it difficult to leave.
This is not just because of the firm's non-competes, but because of the deferred compensation you will have invested in Citadel's own funds. Bloomberg notes that this has increased substantially in recent years, with employee investments in Citadel's Wellington Fund going from $2.2bn in 2018 to $10bn now.
Beyond a hurdle, Bloomberg says Citadel employees are required to invest half their bonuses in Citadel's own funds and that they can't be removed for three and a half years. If a rival fund wants to hire them, it will need to buy them out. The investments are lucrative: Wellington has generated annualized returns of 29.5% in recent years. Citadel people are therefore expensive.
Meanwhile...
The Bank of England is changing vesting terms for UK bonuses. Senior manager bonuses will be deferred for five years instead of eight. Other bankers will have bonuses deferred for four years with pro-rata vesting from year one. (Bloomberg)
Jane Street is selling $4.35bn of debt and will use it to fund new trading capital, among other things. (Bloomberg)
EY has been cutting staff. It employed 393,000 people at the end of its fiscal year in June — about 2,450 fewer than a year earlier. It's the first time in 14 years it has cut headcount. (FT)
Blackstone says rising tech stocks herald more IPOs. . “We are preparing to take some portfolio companies public . . . I would say the discussions have gone from theoretical to practical and we are talking about things like timing.” (Financial Times)
David Einhorn at Greenlight Capital is not excited about the bull market. “The market isn’t just making all-time highs. It is, by many measures, the most expensive stock market that we have seen since the founding of Greenlight.” (Institutional Investor)
Luis Stuhlberger, a 70 year-old Brazilian hedge fund manager has long been known for incredible returns. But after making 26,000% since 1997, he's done less well recently. Last year, he partnered with an ex-Morgan Stanley banker who's been laying his lieutenants off. (Bloomberg)
Khalid Albdah, chief executive officer of the firm’s Saudi operations since 2015, is leaving. (Bloomberg)
Meta fired about two dozen staff in Los Angeles for using their $25 meal credits to buy household items including acne pads, wine glasses and laundry detergent. (Financial Times)
The exits from Meta include a cybersecurity specialist it spent a long time trying to hire, although she's not implicated in the expenses issue. (Threads)
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)
