RBC Capital Markets has made two equities analysts redundant just before bonus time

RBC's full year 2013 results are due to be announced on December 5th. Bonuses in the Capital Markets business are likely to be communicated in the weeks that follow.

It's unfortunate, therefore, that less than a month before the bonus date, we understand that the Canadian bank has decided it no longer needs the services of two members of its equity research team.

Patrick Lee - a banks researcher, and Katherine Tonks, an oil services analyst - are both understood to have left the bank. Lee was not listed when we attempted to contact him and Tonks' LinkedIn profile says she was made redundant in mid-November after the bank decided to stop covering the oilfield-services sector.

A spokeswoman for RBC Capital Markets declined to comment. Headhunters said neither analyst received an annual bonus.

Canadian bank RBC is one of the first to report its annual results. It's also one of the first banks to pay annual bonuses to employees in its capital markets arm. And it's one of the first banks to make pre-bonus redundancies. Expect a lot more of this in the months to come.