Star trader turned risk chief at Barclays' bad bank has left

Richard Carson, the former head of equity derivatives trading at Deutsche Bank, who moved into a senior risk management job at Barclays in 2012, has now left the bank.

Carson left in September. He's a good example of former star traders making the switch into the seemingly safe haven of risk management. He headed up market risk team across Barclays’ rates, FX, commodities and equities team within its investment bank during his time there.

Unfortunately for him, however, his last job was leading risk within Barclays’ non-core business – which is being wound down as quickly as possible. Barclays has been speeding up the divestment process this year – the disposal of these businesses meant that Q3 revenues at the bank were down 10% year on year to £2.9bn. CEO Jes Staley said during Barclays' quarterly results last week its strategic priorities include winding down the non-core business “as fast as possible”. “Non-core rundown is approaching the final lap towards closure,” he said.

Barclays isn’t the only bank with a rapidly shrinking bad bank, of course. Unless you’re able to move internally later, taking a job in a banks’ non-core unit is a ticking time bomb. Credit Suisse has been adding more divisions to its non-core wind-down – including assets from its equity derivatives and prime services division – and has accelerated the process this year. Deutsche Bank might be considering paying bonuses in shares of its non-core unit, but it’s rapidly shrinking and leaking money. Between 2012-2015, it generated $12bn of losses for the bank.

Carson moved to Barclays after spending two years running his own equity derivatives-focused hedge fund, Cugnai Asset Management between 2010-2012. He joined Deutsche Bank as a junior trader in 1996 and spent nearly 13 years at the bank before leaving in November 2008.

He is not the only senior risk manager to leave Barclays in recent months. Paolo Mammola, the former global head of market risk for Barclays’ investment bank, left in July. Since then, he’s been involved in various consulting work – as an expert witness for Turing Experts, senior advisor to Mckinsey and founder of his own risk consultancy, Sigma Squared Risk Advisors.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com