The weirdest recent hires at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Barclays

We're in the fourth quarter, but banks in London are still hiring.

We've scoured their recent additions to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register and pulled out some of their most notable recent recruits on the grounds of strangeness/unexpectedness. Here's what you need to know.

1. UBS has poached a junior equity researcher from Deutsche Bank and shifted him into M&A

Want to get out of equity research (a dying industry) and into M&A (an industry with a healthy pipeline)? Try UBS. The Swiss bank has just hired Paolo Bergamelli, a junior equity researcher with only eight months' experience at Deutsche Bank, and moved him into M&A.

2. UBS has hired a salesman with several years' experience working at clothing store River Island

Retail experience need not be inimical to a career investment banking. UBS has just hired Lance Owide to its Delta Sales desk. Owide has a year and a half's experience as a shop assistant at River Island and four months' experience as a buyer's assistant for the same store. He also has four A levels at Grade A and a degree in Economics from the University of Bath.

3. Morgan Stanley has hired a former Aide de Camp to the Deputy Commander at Nato's Rapid Deployable Corps in Italy 

Like most banks, Morgan Stanley is building its OTC derivatives client clearing business. It's hired Hugo Young, who completed an ex-military internship with the bank after working for the military in Iraq, Italy and London.

4. Goldman Sachs has hired a Credit Index trader with a mere six months experience doing something completely different at Commerzbank 

Want to work in credit index trading at Goldman Sachs? Try spending six months in equity derivatives flow trading at Commerzbank. Goldman's just hired Matthieu Gédon-Monaco, who left HEC in Paris in 2012 and did just that.

5. Barclays has hired an FX trader who spent six months working in equities and commodity derivatives structuring 

In a further indication that you need to be flexible about products in the early stages of a trader career, Barclays has hired an FX trader with no experience in FX. Moez Ghanmi joined from BNP Paribas, where he spent six months in commodity derivatives structuring. Before that, he spent six months at SocGen as a risk analyst for exotic interest rate derivatives.

6. Goldman Sachs has extracted a JPMorgan lifer 

Goldman Sachs has hired a managing director who'd spent his entire career at JPMorgan. Dimitrios Nikolakopoulos has joined as a managing director in equity derivatives trading. Dimitrios had been at JPM for 13 years, at least.