Prime broking recruitment has gone truly crazy
Two weeks ago we said prime broking recruitment was looking a little wild. Now it's frothing at the mouth.
In the past few weeks, Citigroup has hired a new head of global trading for its prime finance unit (the sixth senior prime broking hire it's made this year), JPMorgan has reshuffled management of its prime broking business in anticipation of growth, UBS and Morgan Stanley have swapped prime broking heads, HSBC has launched a prime broking unit, and so has Cantor Fitzgerald. Barclays Capital is also hiring.
"It's absolutely getting more active," says Andrew Morland at Pelham International. "There are a lot of new entrants to the market and they all need quality staff."
"Citi is one of the big hirer's this year. They're hiring high quality talent right across prime finance and are looking to continue expanding," says James Bridgman at Kinsey Allen.
Privately, headhunters express doubts whether HSBC will be able to attract top tier prime broking talent: "Historically they haven't paid very well," says one.
