Citi said to be contemplating August cuts amidst queries on hiring strategy
Goldman Sachs won't be making job cuts in its investment bank in the third quarter, but this doesn't mean bankers elsewhere are safe. Citi is understood to be eyeing a few senior banker extractions of it own in August.
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Senior sources at the US bank said Citi's August cuts are at a nascent phase and currently known only to senior people in the investment banking business. They're expected to impact directors and managing directors across investment banking. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.
The cuts come as senior bankers everywhere are hoping for a resurgence of M&A deals and IPOs. Blackstone number two Jon Gray declared last week that the dealmaking pause is over and said the private capital firm has "the largest forward IPO pipeline since 2021."
Revenues in Citi's M&A business rose 52% year-on-year in the second quarter, while its equity capital markets revenues were up 25%. Only the bank's debt capital markets revenues fell, nearly 12%, in Q2.
Since mid-2024, Citi's investment bank has been run by Vis Rahgavan, an ex-JPMorgan banker. Raghavan has been busy hiring many of his former colleagues from JPMorgan and is expected to continue doing so. Raghavan himself declared that he was only "getting started" in terms of talent investment in June. To the extent that Citi makes senior cuts, therefore, it will seemingly be to accommodate Raghavan's senior hires.
Some people will welcome this. Citi naysayers say the investment bank is full of demotivated senior staff who need to be cleared out.
Raghavan isn't universally liked by Citi incumbents, though, and will be liked less if some lose their jobs.
Citi insiders are already griping about the curious choice of some recent Raghavan recruits, which have prompted top Citi bankers to flee. There are complaints that Raghavan has been both hiring and quickly promoting. - Ed Sankey, for example, was hired from HSBC as head of EMEA ECM and immediately promoted to Head of EMEA and Asia Pacific ECM. Jamie Mason Barr was hired as head of EMEA ECM cash origination, but is thought to have immediately assumed a broader ECM role. "Citi didn't even need new ECM bankers in London," claims one insider. "It's the sector and coverage teams that really need strengthening."
Some Citi insiders say Raghavan's changes might be more welcome if he walked the floor. "Most people in London have never even met him," said one MD. "He keeps his cards very close to his chest. None of us know what he's up to and we're all wondering how he's funding these new hires."
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