Discontentment and exits hit Goldman's EM team

Emerging markets traders are hot. As we reported earlier this week, Nomura and Jefferies are both hiring. At the same time, it seems Goldman is losing staff.

Sources say the latest to disappear is Gokhan Buyuksarac, a highly rated emerging markets trader who joined Goldman from UBS in 2009. Goldman declined to comment and t's not clear where Buyuksarac is going. However, he's thought to have left of his own accord after bonuses were paid.

Buyuksarac is the latest in a series of exits from Goldman's emerging markets (EM) business over the past 18 months. Volkan Dikmen left for Citadel. Yichen Zhu, an analyst on the EM desk is understood to have gone to Morgan Stanley. Damien McCaughley, an executive director on the desk is said to have quit for Susquehanna International Group, while Andy Skraba quit for SocGen.

Goldman's emerging markets team in London is led by Kunal Shah a hotshot trader who was promoted to MD at just 27 and partner at just 31. It's not clear why Goldman is losing people - nor why those people are choosing to join European banks and second tier banks.

"It's bizarre," says one ex-Goldman trader. "When I was at Goldman, no one wanted to leave. And now they're all going to these obscure places."

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: exit by Kevin McGill is licensed under CC BY 2.0.