As hiring slows, Barclays said to be "interviewing the Street" here

At most banks, recruitment is now moving towards the end of year pre-bonus hibernation period. There are a few "hanging" candidates waiting to finalize contracts who may or may not move before 2019, but most firms are focused on drawing-up next year's plans for headcount rather than busily interviewing to fill gaps, however urgent. Not so Barclays. The British bank is said to be scouring the street for one particular type of trader.

"Barclays are interviewing everyone in London for positions in their rates trading business," says one New York rates trader, speaking off the record. "They've called in the whole street since September as they try to fill their gaps."

Barclays' most pressing gaps are understood to be on its U.S. dollar rates swaps desk in London. The bank has been building its U.S. swaps desk since hiring Chris Leonard from Arcem Capital in June 2017. In May this year, it hired Bertrand Botschi from UBS for the desk in New York, but in London the team was depleted by the departure of Rikhil Agarwal for hedge fund Capstone Investment Advisors in June. The London U.S. dollar swaps desk is understood to be down a single trader as a result.

It's not clear how many U.S. swaps traders Barclays wants to hire, but the numbers are unlikely to be huge - at best, the desk is unlikely to expand beyond three people, but bank's enthusiasm for end of year hiring is notable.

Barclays declined to comment for this article. The British bank has recruited nearly 50 MDs to its markets businesses since 2017 and made over 275 external hires so far this year. The bank's macro income rose 10% in the quarter, with European rates in particular turning in a strong performance - even as other banks complained of weak revenues in the area.

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