Deutsche Bank has just hired the ex-head of SSA trading at RBC

Deutsche Bank hiring freeze doesn’t appear entirely impervious to some thawing. The German bank just hired Igino Napoli, the former head of head of sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) trading at RBC Capital Markets.

Napoli joined Deutsche Bank in late January, according to filings on the Financial Conduct Authority register, having left RBC in August.

Napoli only joined RBC as head of SSA trading debt in October 2014, after spending five months at ANZ. Before this, he was head of covered bond trading at Jefferies for four years.

Napoli is the latest of a select band of senior bankers and traders recruited by Deutsche Bank in recent months. In theory, the German bank has imposed a hiring freeze as it looks to shed another 7,000 jobs net by 2020.

Deutsche Bank isn’t shedding jobs everywhere, of course, despite the renewed focus on cost-cutting. When John Cryan outlined the bank's 'Strategy 2020', he said Deutsche will hire in areas like M&A and equities. By comparison, jobs are expected to go in areas like securitised trading, flow credit, agency residential mortgage backed trading and CDS trading.

Napoli was among the 104 former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers who successfully claimed for €52m in unpaid bonuses against Commerzbank in 2012. He was among the three highest paid of all the claimants – asking for £2m in unpaid bonuses.