Goldman Sachs just made a big hire from Barclays

If anyone's moving this year, it's leveraged finance professionals. And if anyone's hiring, it's Barclays, which is busy adding between 50 and 100 people to its investment bank.  Now, however, Barclays will need to make another hire (or find some spare talent internally): Goldman just poached one of its senior leveraged finance bankers in London.

Marc Chowrimootoo, whom Barclays hired for its leveraged finance team in 2008, has just joined GS according to his LI profile.  Headhunters say Goldman has been looking to strengthen its European leveraged finance bench since promoting Rob Pulford out of leveraged finance and into the role of head of financial sponsors for Europe two years ago.

Chowrimootoo has a history of playing the field: Goldman is the third bank he's been MD at. Before Barclays, he spent four and a half years as an MD in BAML.

Banks have been strengthening their European leveraged finance teams this year, both as the market picks up and as leveraged finance bankers defect to hedge funds. Last month, Citi hired Toby Ali from BAML to head European leveraged finance and BAML has yet to fill the gap. HSBC hired J.P. Morgan veteran Ray Doody in February and is said to be still hiring by headhunters. Mitsubishi made two senior hires in January and may yet look to hire at the bottom end.

Although there are still gaps to fill, headhunters suggest Chowrimootoo might be the last big hire of the year in leveraged finance. "We're into the summer lull now," says one. "There's not much going on and we're starting to see people looking ahead to 2018."

Chowrimootoo isn't the only exchange of senior staff between Goldman and Barclays this year. Last month, Barclays hired Asita Anche, a former GS quant trader. 

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com