Like salesperson, like client
Merrill Lynch's US brokerage unit is accused of assigning staff to clients according to their ethnic background. Recruiters say the practice isn't unheard of in the City.
"If you have a Muslim client, banks will usually do their utmost to put them in contact with a Muslim salesperson," says the director of one search firm, who declined to be named.
At last month's Women in Business Conference at the London Business School, one Spanish derivatives saleswoman working at a US bank alleged she was discriminated against because the bank preferred to use her only for (relatively rare) female Spanish clients.
"An American guy has just joined my team and he's immediately been handed a lot bigger accounts than I have after more than a year," she claimed.
The allegations against Merrill Lynch are being made by sixteen of its current and former black American employees. The bank stands accused of systematic and pervasive discrimination against African-American brokers and trainees nationwide in hiring, promotion and compensation.
Reuters reports the allegations also extend to "pandering to racist clients."
However, one London recruiter denies there's anything nefarious in City-based banks' alleged efforts to match salespeople to their clients. "A bank will say we need a Spanish person to cover a Spanish client - it's more a question of language and culture than anything else," says Katie Penrose, a director in the fixed income division of search firm Akamai Financial Markets.
