SocGen has just hired a new head of emerging markets trading from Millennium Capital

Investment banks are a better option for senior traders than hedge funds right now. Despite the Brexit-related recruitment frost, senior traders and portfolio managers on the buy-side are gravitating back towards banks.

The latest example is Elie Pano, who has just joined Société Générale as head of emerging markets trading in London. Pano spent a mere 10 months working at Millennium Capital Management, which he joined in March last year after nearly eight years at J.P. Morgan. He left in December and joined SocGen earlier this month.

It helps that Pano works in emerging markets trading, a sector that smaller banks like Commerzbank, Jefferies and Standard Chartered are all hiring in right now.

Gravitating away from hedge funds - which have struggled to justify large fees and are closing at near record rates - back towards investment banks is a trend across the market though. Greg Sadler, a partner and portfolio manager within CQS's financials team is off to join HSBC as head of financials in April. Sadler spent over 16 years working in trading roles at investment banks including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Citi before joining CQS in 2013.

Similarly, Rodrigo Albero, who was head of equity sales for Iberia at Goldman Sachs, left for hedge fund Ronit Capital to head its business development function, has returned to the U.S bank after just eight months.

Switching to the buy-side has often been a route to bigger pay packets for investment banks' traders. However, hedge funds have been struggling - research from Preqin suggests that 75% of hedge funds are now willing to cut their fees, largely because of investor demand. Meanwhile, 530 hedge funds shut down last year, according to HFM Research, which is the highest figure since 2008.

Even so, investment banks aren't a super-stable option now. Most are expected to announce job relocation plans over the next few months now that prime minister Theresa May has triggered Article 50.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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