If you want a quick way of getting a bigger title, it pays to move from a top bulge bracket investment bank to a smaller player in the City. So it is with Vaheesan Sinnathamby, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, who has just joined Haitong Securities.
Sinnathamby worked in fixed income credit sales at Goldman Sachs until May this year, but has just joined Haitong Securities as a managing director in emerging markets sales. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2007, straight from City University London, where he studied engineering.
As we’ve mentioned previously, trading a bulge bracket bank for a smaller, aspirational player is a good way to secure an senior title that is proving elusive at a larger firm.
Chinese investment bank Haitong has certainly given the impression that it has aspirations to be a bigger player in London. Last year it said that it planned to hire “hundreds” of bankers across Europe and the Americas and double the size of Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento, which it acquired in 2014. However, its UK hiring spree where it went from 50 FCA-registered employees in May 2015 to 77 people in March this year has proven short-lived. It now has 59 front office employees in London, according to the FCA register.
But Goldman Sachs’ sales teams – particularly in FICC – have been slimmed down throughout 2016. Goldman said in March that it was cutting 10% of its 2,500 fixed income currencies and commodities sales and trading staff in March. As we said at the time, a number of managing directors and partners were forced out of the door, but headhunters suggested that at least 40 London-based jobs were set to go.
And while Haitong may be open to picking up talent from larger banks, it’s also been cutting elsewhere. Around 50% of its equity research division were let go in May.
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