The big question at Citi now: will Ina De join from JPMorgan?
It's been nearly three weeks. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Ina De, JPMorgan's vice chair of investment banking was retiring. De had been with the US bank since 1987, so it's conceivable that her next move will entail a protracted period of lying down. Unless, of course, she joins Citi instead.
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As we noted nearly two years ago, De was one of Vis Raghavan's close colleagues at JPMorgan. As Raghavan began assembling his new team at Citi, De was rumoured to be one of the many JPMorgan bankers he intended to poach.
Since that time, Citi has indeed hired various members of JPMorgan's ECM team, including Achtinya Mangla, Aloke Gupte, and Nicolas Skaff. It's also hired an array of other bankers, including Guillermo Baygual, who arrived last October as the co-head of global M&A, based in London.
Citi declined to comment for this article and we haven't spoken to De. Technically, she still seems to be employed by JPMorgan - the FCA Register shows De still registered with the bank. However, Citi insiders are wondering whether De will ultimately turn up there. One observes that Baygual, who spent 25 years at JPMorgan, was also supposed to be retiring when he left the bank, but this turned out not to be so.
If De is joining Citi, it might be summer before she arrives. Mangla himself left JPMorgan to pursue other opportunities in April 2024 and walked into Citi six months later. Six months is the standard period of gardening leave for senior people, so De would start at Citi in August.
While Citi is hiring from JPMorgan, JPMorgan has also been hiring from Citi. Last year, JPMorgan recruited Suneel Hargunani, who was Citi's co-head of EMEA equity capital markets (ECM) between 2019 and 2025. Hargunani is now JPMorgan's head of EMEA syndicate. He was a popular figure at Citi and it's not inconceivable that former colleagues will join him.
Citi, meanwhile, has also recruited non-JPMorgan bankers, including Ed Sankey, the former head of global equity capital markets (ECM) at HSBC, who's now managing its business in EMEA. If De joins, she will be working with Ed.
Not every JPMorgan leaver joins Citi. Klaus Hessberger, who previously worked alongside De at JPMorgan as head of the strategic investors and financial sponsors business, joined Lazard in October.
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