If you work for Deutsche Bank you might want to leave. People are already leaving in Asia and headhunters say Deutsche staff everywhere are displaying a “higher openness” to finding work elsewhere. But what if Deutsche turns out not to be so bad compared to the alternatives? – What if you leave Deutsche for something that sounds good, but turns out to be worse?
This is what seems to have happened to former Deutsche credit salesman Dray Simpson. Simpson left Deutsche Bank involuntarily when he was laid off in 2015, but quickly found a new position as a managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald in London. Unfortunately, the Cantor job didn’t go well and Simpson is now out of the market, suing Cantor and suffering from health problems.
In court documents outlining his case against, Simpson reportedly argues that traders at Cantor behaved in a way that was, “dishonest, fraudulent and potentially illegal,” and that, “If I didn’t do whatever I could to get the trade done, including lying, as far as they were concerned I wasn’t doing my job properly and I didn’t have enough ‘desire to succeed.”’ When Simpson tried to raise his concerns with Cantor’s traders, he says they became “aggressive” and “confrontational.” Deutsche Bank might be seen as nice and friendly by comparison.
In its defense, Cantor is arguing that Dray should’ve gone to compliance, but didn’t, raising his problems directly with the traders concerned and management instead. Simpson in turn says he accepts there were “issues” between he and the managers and the traders, but says he wasn’t prepared to turn a blind-eye to the allegedly nefarious goings-on. His health has suffered and Cantor has now dumped him too. Let this be a warning to anyone who would leave Deutsche for an up-and-coming new player in the market. Is one bad bonus really such a terrible thing?
Separately, as finance lobby group AFME warns against the perils of Brexit without a transition deal, law firm Davis Polk has issued an update reminding clients about something called the “overseas person exclusion” option (OPE). Currently operated by the UK, this allows market access without exclusion so long as only certain types of product are provided to certain types of client on a cross border basis. Why couldn’t the EU have something similar post-Brexit, allowing UK-based staff access to its markets with certain restrictions? It’s a nice idea, but it wouldn’t apply to retail clients and would need to go through the EU legislative process. says Davis Polk. And that may take a while.
Meanwhile:
Theresa May indicates that the UK might accept free movement of people during a transitional period after 2019. (Financial Times)
ABN Amro wants to grow in London: it plays to hire between seven and 15 bankers in the coming years. (Financial News)
German managing director who moved to London has left his family at home because he thinks he’ll be sent back again soon. (Bloomberg)
Donald Trump says he’s gonna, “do a very major haircut on Dodd-Frank.” (Independent)
J.P. Morgan’s $100m cell phone trade was just a simple transaction changing euros to dollars undertaken by a client who was using the bank’s app to trade outside the office. (Wall Street Journal)
Why you should never burn bridges in banking: Morgan Stanley’s co-head of healthcare investment banking is rejoining J.P. Morgan over 10 years after leaving. (Financial News)
Earn £13k ($16k) for lying in bed for two months. (Business Insider)
How to have a high performing hedge fund: preface everything about it with “Splendid” (Bloomberg)
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Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com
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