10 exceptional 19 year-olds about to arrive at banks in London

Research out today suggests banks in London are bereft of the kinds of top graduates from the European Union who used to queue up to work in the City. There were 50,000 fewer EU graduates in the UK in the fourth quarter, with EU graduates going into finance falling particularly heavily.

This may be so, but London banks' intake of first year university students for their spring weeks suggests City jobs are still an appealing option for graduates of all nationalities. If anything, banks' spring week intakes are particularly multinational and multicultural. "Spring weeks are part of banks' attempts to recruit people from a diverse range of backgrounds," says John Craven, a former structurer at Merrill Lynch who now helps non-middle class students into banking jobs. 

Below, we've picked out 10 of the most impressive first year university students (whom we assume to be around 19 years old, although some may be older) who'll be turning up at banks' offices in London in the next few weeks. There are some EU students on the list, but there are also several who speak African, Arabic or Asian languages. If European language speakers pull out, it seems the City will have others to choose from. Please note, the list is not in ranked order.

1. Ayman Ahmed

Studying:  Economics at UCL

2017 Spring internships with: Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas

Previous internships: Insight week Deloitte, summer internship Deutsche, summer internship Oliver Wyman.

Speaks: English, Arabic.

Special because: Ayman began his finance internships before he even began studying at UCL. This is called 'starting early'.

2. Ifeoluwa Adeyemi

Studying: Economics with Japanese at Birmingham University. Achieved first class standard in first year.

2017 Spring internships with: Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Lazard, BNP Paribas

Other things of note: Adeyemi's been nominated for a positive role model award from National Diversity Awards.

Speaks: English, Japanese, Portuguese

Special because: Ifeoluwa's list of spring internships is among the most impressive we've seen. He's also got some valuable extracurricular experience, including working at the Rio Olympics and in a home for the mentally disabled in Brazil.

3. Lorcan Delaney 

Studying: Electronic and electrical engineering at UCL with a year abroad at ETH in Zurich. On track for a first class degree.

2017 Spring internships with: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte (strategy consulting).

Other things of note: Delaney graduated from his high school with some of the highest marks in his year, and his school was one of the top in Italy.

Speaks: Italian and English (at least).

Special because: Lorcan's academic record is exceptional. He's already landed top internships and co-founded the UCL Centre for Blockchain technologies.

4. Eniola Ojumu

Studying: Sociology at the University of Warwick.

2017 Spring internships with: J.P. Morgan

Previous experience with: Chevron in Nigeria. Mentored by PwC and Deloitte in London.

Speaks: English, German and Yoruba

Special because: Eniola has a huge amount of international experience. She's also worked across different sectors before coming to J.P. Morgan.

5. Abi Adeyemi

Studying: Economics at the LSE

2017 Spring internships with: Goldman Sachs.

Previous experience with: Deutsche, EY and UBS.

Special because: Abi only started at the LSE last year, but he already has plenty of internships under his belt. He got three As at A-level and two As at AS-level.

6. Pawel Kaluzny

Studying: Business and management with a European language at Cardiff University.

2017 spring internships with: J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays.

Speaks: English, German, Polish

Previous experience with: PwC, KPMG, Teach First

Special because: Pawel not only has excellent experience but he's a former president of Young Poles. This will be interesting to banks like Goldman Sachs, which are in the process of bolstering its operations in Warsaw.

7. Nicole Wilcox

Studying: Computing and management at Loughborough University.

2017 spring internships with: Goldman Sachs (tech)

Previously: Completed the J.P. Morgan Code for Good Hackathon.

Special because: Nicole is on track for a first class degree after scoring 78.1% in her first year. A brilliant Afro Caribbean woman in tech, she's the kind of person banks need to appeal to more strongly in future.

8. Kushagra Bosamia

Studying: Chemical engineering at Imperial College London as part of an exchange programme from the University of Queensland in Australia.

2017 spring internships with: Citi (capital markets origination)

Speaks: English, Gujarati, Hindi.

Special because: Kushagra is an exceptional chemist (he achieved full marks in the first year of his degree in Queensland) with a valuable international perspective. His is the kind of profile London banks are likely to hire more of in future.

9. Sukhmani Singh

Studying: Government and economics at the LSE

2017 spring internships with: Citi and EY

Previous experience with: UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Bank of America.

Special because: Sukhmani graduated with top marks from her high school in India and has dedicated her time at the LSE to making serious inroads into the banking sector. She's also found time to play tennis on the first team and is part of the LSE Indian women's subcommittee.

10. Patrick Pflughaupt

Studying: Chemistry at UCL

2017 spring internships with: McKinsey Co. & Blackrock

Speaks: English, German (and a bit of Thai and Latin).

Special because: Patrick is on track for a first class degree. He has an international perspective, having spent a year at McGill University in Canada. He's also captain of the UCL rowing team,

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com