Another senior DrKW banker jumps ship

His decision to leave comes a month after the bank lost Manjit Boual, co-head of corporate finance, and has raised concerns about friction between DrKW's old guard and its new management team under Andrew Pisker and Karl Ralf Jung.

Other senior departures in the past year include Tim Shacklock, chairman of corporate finance and advisory, and William Waldegrave, the former UK government minister and head of the financial institutions group.

Last year, a swathe of bankers who joined when the firm bought Wasserstein Perella left to join Bruce Wasserstein at Lazard. Cumming-Bruce spent 12 years at the bank and had previously run its corporate broking business. He is also co-head of telecoms banking.

Senior sources at the firm said they were disappointed to see him go, but played down talk of a wholesale change of the old guard. "The bank has seen the most enormous changes in the past few years and you can get to the point when you have had enough. There is no doubt that the business is getting younger, but that is the same across the industry," said one banker.

One reason for the departures has been a shift in attitude at DrKW since Shacklock's departure and the appointment of new senior management.

"Particularly in the current environment, there is a very strong requirement for people here to make money. It is fair to say that Pisker takes a much more steely approach to running the business," said another banker.

One of Pisker's main changes has been to bring in Steven Berger as executive chairman of corporate finance and advisory to boost the bank's presence in M&A, and integrate the division more closely with the rest of the bank. DrKW returned to profitability in the first quarter with a small profit of €11m ($13m).

Cumming-Bruce's responsibilities will taken by Hugh Sanderman in telecoms and Henry Somerset in UK investment banking.