Widespread exits from BNP Paribas CIB before redundancies hit

Back in 2012, BNP Paribas confidently told its investment bankers that it wouldn't be making any more redundancies. CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafé said the bank had no intention of augmenting the 1,400 redundancies to which it was already committed. Last month, that all changed and BNP put another 100 jobs at risk in its corporate and investment bank (CIB).

Individuals put at risk are said to be engaged in long consultation periods, meaning that anyone who has the left the bank in the past two months will have done so of their own accord. On this basis, BNP appears to be experiencing multiple voluntary departures.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register suggests a raft of junior and senior staff have left the French bank.

Senior departures include Peter Rawlings, a director in energy M&A, Mathieu Saint-Cyr, a senior base and precious metals trader, Gildas Surry, BNP's senior banking analyst, Paul Staples, an MD in strategic client coverage, Greig Morrish, a director in credit trading (who's joining HSBC), and Thibaut Remoundos, global head of metals trading.

The FCA Register suggests BNP has also lost Michael Kalouche, a structurer in DCM, Alison Goold, a leveraged finance syndications professional, Alexandre Thorel, an M&A analyst, Sean Richards, an investment grade credit trader, and Augustin Soulie, a leveraged finance analyst.

The exits have taken place since May 1.

BNP Paribas declined to comment the moves, but it's not the only bank losing staff. Traders have also been leaving Credit Suisse, Barclays and Deutsche.

BNP is in the middle of a simplification programme, under which it's creating a single global markets platform. One headhunter who works with the bank said many of the exits so far seem to be contractors in support roles. "BNP are trying to be good to people. They're a nice place to work - it's not a hostile environment," he adds.