Top credit trader with turbulent past decides Deutsche Bank is best place to be

Barclays may be the biggest hirer of the year so far, but Deutsche Bank is not neglecting its recruitment duties either. Despite it being October - a mere three months from bonus time - Deutsche's London office just hired Kevin Edwards, a senior credit trader from SocGen for its London office.

Edwards arrives at DB after a tough few years. He was one of the traders let go by Morgan Stanley when it cleared out 25% of its fixed income business in 2015. He then spent 19 months at SocGen's London office before turning up at Deutsche this October.

Edwards didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. He's not the only former French bank trader hired into the German bank's credit business this year though - Christopher McCarthy, another ex-Morgan Stanley trader who took refuge at BNP Paribas in 2015, joined Deutsche's New York office in April. (At the same time, however, some Deutsche traders have been moving in the opposite direction.)

Fixed income sales and trading revenues at Deutsche Bank fell 12% year-on-year in the second quarter. Over the same period, they were down 7% at SocGen and 16% at BNP Paribas. Deutsche Bank is trying hard to increase its fixed income sales and trading revenues after losing market share during its crisis of September 2016. Although Deutsche outperformed the likes of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan in the three months from March, questions are being raised about the success of its recovery.

The good news about Deutsche Bank is that it should - in theory - pay healthy bonuses this year. Having joined this late, it's possible that Edwards is on a guarantee. If not, he may get a small pro-rated bonus for three months. His new colleagues are understood to be optimistic (still) about their payouts for 2017. "Marcus Schenck has been going around telling everyone at Deutsche that comp is going to be different this year to last year," says one ex-Deutsche MD. "I keep telling people this is wishful thinking."

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