Citi needs new DCM bankers after Goldman Sachs’ curious hire

How much did Goldman Sachs spend to hire Tommaso Ponselé, Citi’s short-lived head of corporate debt capital markets (DCM)? No one knows exactly, but the suspicion is that Ponselé might have been a cost-effective plug to fill the hole in Goldman’s corporate DCM team. “Goldman are restaffing at lower cost,” observes one headhunter. 

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Citi may now need to do the same thing. Having lost Ponselé and multiple senior figures from its European debt capital markets business in the past few years, insiders say Citi has serious gaps at the top. 

Ponselé isn’t Citi’s only DCM exit. In recent years, the bank has lost at least eight other senior bankers from the business in Europe, the names of whom are listed here and here. Some were let go in repeated rounds of redundancies. Others, like Ed Jamie – a VP on the desk, walked and then found jobs at Goldman. Most have left in the past 12 months,

Ponselé himself was the last senior man standing. Thomas Lundquist, Citi’s former and very longstanding head of European corporate DCM left Citi in 2023 after being shunted into a chairman role. He’s now at BNP Paribas.  In Lundquist’s absence, Ponselé – who had previously focused on Central and Eastern Europe (CEEMEA) DCM was promoted as co-head of European corporate DCM alongside Colm Rainey, Citi’s head of UK and Irish FIG DCM. Rainy himself was then cut in October 2024, leaving Ponselé as the sole survivor.  

Who will replace Ponselé on the podium? Citi declined to say, but its bench is looking bare. The suspicion is that the bank will hire externally, a process that may take several months. In the meantime, the bank has been slipping down the league tables: it ranks seventh year to date for European DCM, down from fifth last year. 

Citi has more than Ponselé's role to fill. It also needs replacements for Iman Abdel Khalek its EMEA head of DCM and for Zain Zaidi its head of UK, Europe and MEA loans products, both of whom resigned last month. It could always hire from HSBC, which is leaking DCM bankers too. Or, to or knowledge, Rainey is still out of the market. 

In the meantime, some are looking askance at Ponselé, who's joining Goldman's capital solutions group, seemingly to cover Western Europe, despite his long history covering the East. Goldman has its own DCM gaps to fill: Trent Wilkins moved internally into M&A in April and Elis Jones moved internally into football banking in 2023. It could always go back to Citi for replacements.

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