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Winners and Losers of the European Poaching Game

Published: Apr 09, 2009

 Finance       

Since last fall, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and Bank of America infamously swallowed Merrill Lynch, big swinging bankers across the Atlantic have been jumping ship in record numbers. This week, the Financial Times published a telling graphic detailing where bankers have jumped from and to, underscoring which firms are killing it and which firms are getting killed. Here's a summary of FT's findings:

 

Rothschild: +9 (gained 9 bankers, lost 0)

 

Deutsche Bank: +9 (gained 12, lost 4)

 

Citi: +8 (gained 11, lost 3)

 

Credit Suisse: +5 (gained 6, lost 1)

 

Lazard: +4 (gained 4, lost 0)

 

Goldman Sachs: +3 (gained 5, lost 2)

 

Morgan Stanley: -2 (gained 1, lost 3)

 

UBS: -6 (gained 0, lost 6)

 

BofA: -10 (gained 0, lost 10)

 

Nomura/Lehman: -16 (gained 5, lost 21)

 

Aside from Citi's positive numbers, which are slightly surprising given the bank's poor publicity as of late (though it should be pointed out that it did nab the No. 3 spot in global announced as well as European announced M&A deals in the first quarter 2009), the plus/minus figures of the rest of the pack come as no large surprise.

 

Rothschild and Lazard, both advisory and asset management firms without major trading operations, have largely avoided the mess wreaking havoc on the rest of the investment banking industry. And Deutsche and Credit Suisse, while hurting, have been able to largely sidestep the neck-deep losses and bad press, unlike UBS (torn apart by big bad bets and tax scheme scandals), BofA (it's been well publicized that many former Merrill insiders have not been happy with their new parent and, as a result, have been heading for the hills) and Nomura/Lehman (which has also been receiving tons of bad PR due to its inability to successfully integrate the Brothers, causing some employees to leave the banking business altogether).

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