Former Citi trader returns as MD after brief stint at Goldman Sachs

A former distressed debt trader at Citi has returned after a very short stint at Goldman Sachs. While the time away from Citi was brief, it was also likely very profitable. Peter Hall, who left Citi as a director in April to join Goldman Sachs, rejoined the firm earlier this month as a managing director.

Hall spent nearly eight years as a distressed debt trader at Citi before jumping to Goldman Sachs earlier this spring. Interestingly, this isn’t Hall’s first stint as a managing director. He joined Cantor Fitzgerald as an MD in early 2009 but left to join Citi as a director less than two years later, according to LinkedIn. Hall cut his teeth at Lehman Brothers until the financial crisis swept the firm away. Goldman Sachs and Citi declined comment. Hall didn’t return a request for comment.

Distressed debt has been one of the hotter sectors in 2018, but more so on the buy-side. At least eight new distressed funds raised a record $2.2. billion on average during the first half of the year, according to the FT. BTIG this week announced the hiring of Michael Carley Sr. the former co-head of global distressed sales, trading and research at UBS.

Despite complaining of a weak fourth quarter in which margins are being compressed (possibly due to a $180m loss relating to an Asian hedge fund), Citi has been building out its markets business. The hire of Hall comes just a couple weeks after Citi nabbed one of New York’s top equity derivative heads. Jason Cuttler joined the bank last month as an MD following two years at J.P. Morgan and another 15 at Goldman Sachs, where he was the global head of the bank’s tactical equity derivatives strategy team. Two impressive coups by Citi. The bank promoted 175 people to MD last week, but Hall and Cuttler weren’t included on the list as they are considered new hires.

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