Christmas is coming and Credit Suisse is laying off European co-heads

Harsh things are happening at Credit Suisse. Despite cutting costs in its global markets business by an impressive 45% in two years, the Swiss bank is supposed to be doing its utmost to protect its permanent staff. Try telling that to the senior managers there who are quietly being let go before the new New Year.

The latest exit is understood to be Stephen Plestis, the bank's European co-head of European OTC and listed derivatives clearing. Insiders say Plestis left the bank last week. Plestis didn't respond to our attempt to contact him and Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Plestis spent 13.5 years at Credit Suisse after joining from Merrill Lynch in 2004. He was promoted to co-head of prime services for Credit Suisse derivatives in EMEA in June 2016 following the departure of former European head of prime derivatives Alex Lenhart.

Credit Suisse insiders say the bank has been laying off expensive senior staff and promoting juniors to save money and that Plestis is simply the latest person to fall foul of this trend. The bank also began moving some of its London prime services business to Dublin in an effort to save money in 2016.

By leaving at this time of the year, Plestis will have foregone his entire 2017 bonus. Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam said earlier this month that Credit Suisse bankers should, "not expect anything spectacular, but something fair. Not a big increase compared to the previous year.”

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