Strange pre-bonus departures are already underway

Most people in the City are NOT feeling paranoid about their jobs. At the end of last year we conducted a survey which revealed that 60% of 329 London based financial services professionals felt fine about their job security for 2011.

Maybe they were badly deluded.

BarCap is already eliminating people - seemingly from its equities business in particular - and is doing so less than one month before bonuses are announced.

Now other banks are mysteriously shedding senior staff too.

Jack DiMaio, global head of interest rates, credit and currency trading is quitting Morgan Stanley, just one week before bonuses are announced.

DiMaio has reportedly 'decided to return to the buyside' voluntarily. His timing seems strange, given that he could have collected his full 2010 bonus had he chosen to defer to his decision for a few weeks.

Separately, Reuters reports that Adam Knight, Credit Suisse's global head of commodities, 'recently left the company', despite the fact that bonuses are paid this week or next.

It's quite possible that DiMaio and Knight left of their own accords and negotiated exit packages including their 2010 bonuses.

Equally, however, all banks have a reputation for ejecting people just before bonus time as a way of cutting costs.

As we pointed out before Christmas, most banks' employment contracts include clauses stating that to be eligible for a bonus you have to be both working and not under notice. In theory, therefore, a bank which announces a bonus but makes its recipient redundant before the payment date is absolved of the need to pay.

Bear this in mind in the weeks to come.