Bank analysts quit Goldman and JP Morgan

A pair of senior equity research analysts covering the banking sector have resigned from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Stephen Kirk, senior UK and Ireland banks analyst at JP Morgan, is moving to Lansdowne Partners, a hedge fund with more than $4bn (€3bn) in assets under management.

He will work on its global financials fund. Kirk joined JP Morgan in 2002 after a four-year stint at Deutsche Bank, where he was the lead UK and Irish banks analyst. A spokesman for Lansdowne declined to comment.

Kirk is following a well-trodden path to the buyside. Last year, William De Winton, co-head of European bank research at Morgan Stanley, joined Lansdowne Partners as its seventh partner.

Meanwhile, Anik Sen, managing director and head of the European banking and insurance research team at Goldman Sachs, has also resigned.

Banking sources said Sen was considering setting up a hedge fund.

A banking source said: "Any analyst who's good at what he does wouldn't rule out setting up a fund. Anik is certainly in that category."

Neither Kirk nor Sen could be reached for comment. Goldman declined to comment.

Girish Reddy, former head of Goldman's equity derivatives division, recently teamed up with former colleagues Gavyn Davies and Thomas Healey to launch Prisma Capital Partners.

Other recent departures for the hedge fund industry include Dinakar Singh, who was co-head of Goldman's principal strategies group, Eric Mindich, the bank's youngest partner, and David Blood, former chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Sen joined Goldman in 2002 from UBS, where he spent seven years heading coverage of financial institutions.