Simon Rankin, a senior leveraged and acquisition finance investment banker at J.P. Morgan in London, has left the bank after more than five years.

Leveraged finance isn't having the greatest year, and Europe is predictably suffering more than the U.S. In the first nine months, deal volume fell by 16% to $277.7bn, according to Dealogic data, making this the worst year since 2012. Although he worked in London, Rankin was focused on emerging markets deals.

He left earlier this month.

Before joining J.P. Morgan in July 2011, Rankin was at Deutsche Bank, where he was a managing director in special situations and acquisition finance for the CEEMEA region.

Prior to Deutsche Bank, he spent more than 11 years at Morgan Stanley working across both London and New York. He worked in acquisition and leveraged finance for the U.S, Europe and CEEMEA during his time at Morgan Stanley. He has an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

J.P. Morgan has been shaking up its leveraged finance team over the past two months. Most notably, Ray Doody, head of EMEA leveraged finance, stepped down from his role to "pursue other opportunities in the firm" in October. Stefan Povaly and Daniel Rudnicki were promoted to co-heads of sponsor leveraged finance.

Rankin's departure from J.P.M's London leveraged finance team in London therefore looks like an anomaly. Other members have worked at J.P.M for aeons and continue to do so.  Ben Thompson, a managing director in leveraged finance in London, has worked at J.P. Morgan for over 20 years, Todd Rothman, a managing director in acquisition and leveraged finance in the City, has worked at the bank since 1999. Daniel Rudnicki Schlumberger, head of financial sponsor leveraged finance, has been there for nearly 19 years. 

Departures are not unheard of, however. Chris Munro, who worked in leveraged finance at J.P. Morgan for nearly 20 years, left last year to join Bank of America Merrill Lynch as co-head of leveraged finance. 

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com