French banks for the French, German banks for the Germans?

18 September 2007

1 minute read

French banks for the French, German banks for the Germans?

Dresdner Kleinwort's in trouble for allegedly favouring German-speaking employees. Are other banks open to similar accusations?

Australian banker Malcolm Perry is taking Dresdner K to court for what The Guardian describes as an allegedly discriminatory hiring policy "designed to fill senior management with Germans and German speakers."

Perry, who was formerly head of the bank's fixed income division, is seeking 10m in compensation.

If he succeeds, we suspect it could cause something of a ruckus in the senior echelons of other banks. BNP Paribas, for example, employs 400 French people at its Harewood Avenue office (admittedly a negligible 17% of the total), and US banks retain US bankers for senior European roles.

How much of an issue is this? Have you been overlooked for promotion because you didn't speak the right language, or your accent didn't have the right twang?

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

Ex
Ex-staff in Jap bank
12 August 2008
I used to work for a Japanese Bank. the situation is even worser. All department heads are Japanese & almost all are terrible, in terms of knowledge, mindset, work attiudes. Even worser, it doesnt matter whether you can speak their language. You simply wont lead a team no matter how hard you work & how smart you are.
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Anon.
17 October 2007
Dresdner's problem is not that it is racist, rather that it is nepotistic, ultra-political and consistently fails either to spot or retain talent.
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Anonymous
16 October 2007
American banks are us as bad. I used to work in the fixed income asset management division of one of the 2 largest American banks. Global Head of Fixed sat in NYC. Guess what? Even the crap American VPs were always promoted up to MD.
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Schillaci
25 September 2007
Kanayo : after two years from a merge I still receive emails in German.. is patriotism/nationalism something excluding well manners ?
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Anonymous
23 September 2007
I am definitely not a lawyer, but my common sense there is a case of discrimination if this guy was hired and promoted as a non-German speaker and/or if this guy was hired or promoted without the condition to learn German at least at a pre-specified level within specified period of time.
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