A Credit Suisse top options trader quit for crypto
As exits blow through Credit Suisse, one business that received a lot of plaudits back in the days of Tidjane Thiam has experienced multiple departures: global trading solutions (GTS).
Credit Suisse's GTS team is intended to join up its investment bank and wealth management businesses, bringing investment-bank style structuring and execution capabilities to wealth management clients. It was cited as an area of focus in the bank's last investor day, but there are grumbles that it's getting less love than before. This might be why several team members have disappeared.
Headhunters say that at least three people have quit in the past month. Key among them is Mike Pozarzycki, who ran previous metals options trading for Credit Suisse in Zurich. Pozarzycki left the bank in March, according to his LinkedIn profile. He's understood to be the latest in a long line of traders to decide that crypto market making is a better place to be, and is thought to be joining GSR, the crypto market maker that says it wants to hire 100 people every six months for a few years.
Credit Suisse declined to comment on Pozarzycki's exit. He's not the only one to leave: the team is also understood to have lost Guarang Gupta, a junior FX options trader in London, and Natrajan Rajendran, an FX options trader who's left Credit Suisse for the second time after initially quitting for hedge fund ExodusPoint in 2018 before coming back again in 2020. It's not clear where Gupta and Rajendran are going next, although one is understood to be joining the buy-side and the other is thought to be joining a rival bank.
Credit Suisse is understood to have made a few hires to compensate for the exits, although their identities remain a mystery.
The Swiss bank is experiencing some disgruntlement after cutting its bonus pool last year and adopting a new system of cash bonuses for directors and managing directors that can be clawed back (plus tax) if people leave within three years. After making a loss of nearly CHF4bn in the investment bank last year, Credit Suisse has also been clawing back previous years' bonuses before they vest.
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