Actually, John McIntyre has joined RBS rather than going to Switzerland
RBS has hired John McIntyre and John McIntyre successfully sued Commerzbank 2m for failing to pay a promised retention bonus and redundancy payment.
The combination is creating excitement: here we have a government owned bank, hiring someone who clearly earns a lot of money. RBS should be ashamed.
Beyond the indignation, however, RBS's McIntyre-shaped catch says some interesting things, both about RBS and the City.
These include the fact that:
1) Switzerland is a turn-off
McIntyre left Commerzbank in December 2009. We understand that he has spent much of the past six months setting up an M&A practice which was to have provided in-house advice to a family business. At the last moment, however, it became apparent that the new practice was to be based in Switzerland. McIntyre, whose family is based in London, didn't want to move.
2) RBS is building an M&A practice
In the first nine months of this year, RBS ranked 18th for completed European M&A deals and 17th for completed UK deals, according to Thomson Financial. It could clearly do better, and appears to be building up.
"RBS is so strong on the financing side - they lend to something like 80% of the FTSE 100 - that they really ought to be much stronger in M&A," says one senior banker. "They really ought to be picking up more clients, but their business may need to be reshaped."
As well as McIntyre, headhunters say there's another big RBS coverage hire in the pipeline.
3) Maybe RBS is a better M&A bet than BarCap
As a senior M&A banker who once worked at Lehman, McIntyre's obvious home would have been Barclays Capital. And yet he chose RBS instead.
Another senior banker says there are some doubts about BarCap's model. "It's seen as a bit chaotic, there's a bit of a turf battle going on between the US and Europe. They've hired a few good people, but an awful lot of average people," he reflects.
4) RBS will still pay handsomely for the right people
No mention has been made of the size of the package McIntyre's negotiated from BarCap. However, one M&A headhunter says a man of his calibre wouldn't come cheaply.
RBS's apparent willingness to pay follows its famed generosity to Antonio Polverino, who it hired for an alleged 7m to come and head its fixed income business in 2009. Polverino seems to be paying off: JPMorgan analysts predict RBS's share of global FICC trading will go from 7.7% this year to 9.1% in 2011.
