Deutsche now providing opportunities for disappointed U.S. bankers in London to go home

By all accounts, American bankers in London are not happy. They find themselves adrift in a city of astronomical house prices, depressing weather and sullen markets. They want to go home. Things seem better in New York. Their wives aren't happy: "New Jersey homes are much larger and more affordable," complains one grey spouse.

Fortunately, therefore, Deutsche Bank is coming to the rescue! As has been widely reported, the German bank is still going for it in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales and trading. Deutsche is building its FICC business in the U.S., where it hired seven traders and analysts in early May and one senior rates salesperson last week.

Last week's hire at Deutsche was Chris Yoshida from Morgan Stanley. This should excite U.S. bankers in London because Yoshida, an American by birth, had been marooned in the City ever since transferring to Europe with Morgan Stanley in 2005. Now Deutsche has given him an opportunity to go back home again. Even better, Yoshida has gained a promotion: at Morgan Stanley he was in charge of EMEA rates sales, at Deutsche he'll be in charge of EMEA rates sales.

Other American fixed income bankers in London may want to get in touch with Colin Fan, head of Deutsche's markets business.

Of course, there are questions about the wisdom of Deutsche's FICC expansion at this point in time. But Deutsche is a special case, explained Anshu Jain in an interview with Bloomberg yesterday. The German bank can hire selectively in FICC because it saw this situation coming and cut risk weighted assets and headcount early, Jain said. In the past two years, Jain explained that FICC RWAs were cut 20% and headcount was cut 17%. Now Deutsche is out there sniffing out opportunities again, and U.S. bankers in London can benefit. No mention was made of Deutsche's dramatic fall in FICC revenues or market share, however.

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