Credit Suisse EMEA head of credit trading quits for a hedge fund

Basil Eggenschwyler, Credit Suisse's EMEA head of credit trading and sector strategy, has handed in his resignation. He's understood to be joining a hedge fund.

Sources say that Eggenschwyler resigned on Friday. Eggenschwyler didn't respond to a request to confirm the move and Credit Suisse declined to comment. 

It's understood that Eggenschwyler is joining hedge fund Brevan Howard. This has not been confirmed by BH.

Eggenschwyler spent nearly 15 years at Credit Suisse after joining the bank from Barclays in 2007. His exit comes just months before bonuses are paid for 2021, and follows the announcement of a new strategy at Credit Suisse which will see capital allocated to the investment bank fall from $13bn in Q3 2021 to $11bn in 2022. It also comes as JPMorgan's European banking analysts are predicting a 16% drop in total global credit trading revenues across all banks between 2021 and 2022. 

Eggenschwyler is one in a series of senior credit traders to quit Credit Suisse. 30-year-old star credit trader Hamza Lemssouguer left Credit Suisse in 2020 and now running his own hedge fund, Arini Capital. Fellow credit trading star, David Goldenberg, left the bank to become head of macro credit trading at Barclays last October.

It's thought that Eggenschwyler was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Hamza's exit from the high yield trading team. His departure at this point in the bonus cycle suggests that Credit Suisse's bonuses - which are expected to be low following losses relating to Archegos and Greensill - may not be worth sticking around for. 

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