More senior equity derivative exits pre-bonuses at Barclays

As we reported yesterday, Dali Bacha, European head of equity derivatives, is said to have left Barclays this week. Today we hear that several members of Bacha's team have gone too.

Headhunters said that Fergus Slinger, head of European equity derivatives flow sales is leaving the bank along with Tim Benjamin, head of equity and fund linked derivatives sales for UK and Ireland. Neil Staff, a managing director with responsibility for exotic equity derivatives trading is also said to have left. Barclays didn't immediately respond to a request to confirm the departures. However, colleagues of Benjamin and Staff confirmed that they have left and Slinger's name had been removed from Barclays' system when we called this morning. Slinger was not answering his mobile phone.

Slinger was hired from Deutsche Bank by Barclays in 2009 as part of an aggressive build out of the UK bank's equity derivatives business. Benjamin previously worked in equity derivatives structuring at Merrill Lynch. Staff had been at Barclays since at least 2001. 

Staff is said to be leaving Barclays to set up his own hedge fund. It's not clear whether Slinger and Benjamin are leaving Barclays voluntarily. Barclays is expected to announce its bonuses for 2012 this Friday.

The bank is said to be making 2,000 redundancies ahead of Antony Jenkins' strategy announcement on February 12th.

Early indications are that equity derivatives teams at Barclays are being more affected by departures than cash equities.

Zaheer Ebrahim at search firm Kennedy Group said hedge funds are still hiring traders. Salesmen and women coming out of banks may struggle to find roles in funds, said Ebrahim. "If you're in sales it could be easier to move into the private client and wealth management area," he added.