Ageism as longest serving traders and salespeople leave Barclays?
True to its promise to disproportionately target its most senior staff for layoffs, it seems Barclays has been clearing out long serving rates traders and salespeople.
"Barclays let go of a whole raft of senior people from its rates desk," said one London-based headhunter, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They were mostly people who'd worked there for a while - often with 20 or 25 years' experience. It was like they were pushed out to make way for the new generation."
Barclays didn't return a request to comment on the alleged redundancies, but the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) register confirms the exit of several long serving members of the rates team, including Paul Oliver, Nigel Stafford and Adam McCormack. All men left Barclays in March and may have left the bank voluntarily. According to the FSA register, none has yet found a new job in London. McCormack joined Barclays in 1989 and had worked at the bank for 24 years.
Barclays declined to comment. The bank is making 1,800 layoffs in total. Other senior level departures include Stephen Roti, head of global equity linked origination, as well as Rich Ricci - head of the investment bank.
In 2009, Achim Beck, a 42-year-old investment banker at CIBC successfully sued the bank for making him redundant because it wanted a 'younger' banker to do his job. However, Paul Davies, an employment law partner at law firm Lewis Silkin, said claims of ageism in the banking industry are rare. "Most banks are extremely sophisticated and have very good systems in place to ensure they can't be accused of ageism," he said. Davies added that it's justifiable for organizations to make individuals redundant on the grounds of expense and that long serving employees are often the highest paid.
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