Citi's London DCM bankers perplexed by "bonkers" firings
As wenoted yesterday, debt capital markets (DCM) bankers at Citi in London have been afflicted by unexpected job cuts involving Colm Rainey head of corporate and financial institutions group debt capital markets for UK & Ireland, Christian Rose, an MD in Stockholm, Santhi Athreya, head of corporate DCM for France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Bruno Sáenz de Miera, head of debt capital markets for Iberia and others.
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Citi isn't commenting on the cuts and none of those affected responded to a request to comment, but insiders say they have left the team reeling after a year of strong performance.
«We've shot the lights out this year,» says one senior Citi DCM insider. «People can't believe that this has happened. It's bonkers, and a lot of people on the team are apoplectic.»
As we noted yesterday, DCM revenues at Citi globally were up 74% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, more than at any other bank globally. In EMEA specifically, Dealogic says Citi's market share rose 500 basis points to 5.1%.
Citi insiders blamed the cuts on politics, although not necessarily politics resulting from the recent arrivals of Vis Raghavan and Achintya Mangla from JPMorgan. Instead, they suggest they're the result of a series of reorganizations which have upended the team over a multi-year period.
Recent years have seen the exits of multiple senior DCM bankers from Citi, including Thomas Lundquist, the former head of European corporate DCM who left in 2023. Lundquist was replaced by Tommaso Ponsele, the former head of CEEMEA DCM, who became co-head of European corporate DCM with Colm Rainey, reporting to William Weaver.
Weaver was shunted into a vice chairman role late last year,
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