A senior equity derivatives trader left Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is supposed to be in the process of scrutinizing its equities business, and has yet to make a firm decision about its future. Even so, some senior people are being ejected already.

One of them is Martin Evans, a London-based managing director at Deutsche who formerly headed Deutsche's linear corporate and special situations trading group within the bank's equity derivatives business in London. Evans left Deutsche Bank last month after 16 years according to his LinkedIn profile.

It's not clear whether Evans left before or after Christian Sewing became Deutsche's new chief executive in April, replacing John Cryan. Deutsche previously hired Peter Selman, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, as head of global equities, starting in late December 2017. Selman himself has an equity derivatives background.

Evan says he's now seeking new opportunities. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2002 but has over three decades' finance experience in total after starting his career as a dealer's assistant in Treasury at TSB in 1987.

Deutsche Bank is understood to offer miserly redundancy payments to employees it laying off in London, typically offering little more than the statutory minimum. In various interviews over the weekend, Mark Fedorcik, the newly-promoted co-head of Deutsche Bank's U.S. operations, said the bank plans to remove bottom performers at a rate of 5% per year in future. Deutsche is also expected to cut around 10% of people in its U.S. business in the short term as it seeks a return to profitability.

Evans (who is likely to be expensive in light of his long experience) may yet find work elsewhere. Barclays, Credit Suisse and Citi are all building their equity derivatives businesses this year, although the emphasis is more on the U.S. than Europe.

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