Senior MD at boutique bank moves to UBS, decides not to be senior

As a rule of thumb, bankers who have left for a boutique bank are rarely seen again at Wall Street firms. There are exceptions, however.

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Marina Pristupova joined UBS this week as a managing director (MD) and head of its securitized products originating team. She joined the bank from boutique bank Guggenheim, where she was a Senior managing director (SMD) in its securitized products team. Pristupova spent 12 years at Guggenheim before leaving.

Promotion aside, it helps that UBS is a bit of a champion in the field. Risk.net named it the best bank in the world for structured products and noted that its acquisition of Credit Suisse’s team was a net benefit, with headcount increasing by 45%. Given the huge cuts that Credit Suisse staff were subject to generally, it’s a strong sign.

For what it’s worth, Guggenheim’s SMD title seems to be more on par with plain old MD elsewhere. The H1b database indicates that SMDs at Guggenheim earn salaries of $400k, which is the same salary that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley pay theirs. Bank of America pays their MDs salaries of $500k – but UBS MDs, according to the H1b database, earn “just” $350k. Maybe the bonuses are worth it. Maybe not.

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