Lloyds....or Santander?

Antonio Horta-Osorio, one-time head of capital markets at Citigroup in Portugal and formerly of Goldman Sachs in New York and London, is leaving Santander and joining Lloyds as CEO. Alongside the opportunity to be the biggest cheese at the UK's biggest bank, Antonio has probably been persuaded by his alleged 8.3m pay packet (although this is fairly insignificant alongside Bob Diamond's bigger package).

If, like Antonio, you are toying with Lloyds or Santander, you may be vacillating.

In wholesale banking terms Lloyds and Santander have some similarities: both are cautiously building; both are known for not paying particularly well.

Around this time last year, Santander declared its intention of hiring 200 people for its wholesale banking and markets division. Known joiners this year include Stuart Cheek, a senior government bond salesman formerly of UBS and BCG, and Matt Booth, a fixed income salesman also once from UBS.

Lloyds, meanwhile, has been expanding across equities and credit after recruiting James Garvey to run its capital markets business late last year. In August, it hired Christoffer Mollenbach, former head of FIG debt origination at RBS. It's also hired Alan Capper as managing director and head of credit strategy, Nigel Myer as a director and credit desk analyst, and Paul Osment as director for leveraged credit sales.

Neither is especially hot

In addition to paying poorly, each bank is said to have further demerits.

Headhunters say Santander's expansion is all a bit lacklustre.

"They seem to be drip feeding people in rather than investing a lot in the infrastructure. It's a bit like building a house one brick at a time," says one.

Issues are also allegedly being created by Santander's decision to situate a large part of its wholesale business in Madrid: "There are only so many London bankers with Spanish girlfriends," the headhunter reflects.

"Santander is a very small wholesale banking platform which is basically there to support the rest of the group," claims another fixed income headhunter. "They've had a few problems closing hires, mainly due to pay," he alleges.

By comparison, Lloyds has a longer history of activity in the wholesale markets, particularly in FX. It also appears to have had more success in bringing people on board. On the other hand, it has the British government breathing down its neck.

"If you're an investment banker, Santander is definitely the better bet," a senior equities headhunter suggests. Antonio evidently thought otherwise.