When Deutsche Bank announced its first quarter results in February, it was ambiguous about its plans for jobs. On one hand, CEO Christian Sewing said the bank couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be reducing headcount. On the other, Sewing said it wanted to grow. Two months later, there's less ambivalence: Deutsche Bank is still hiring, and it's doing so from Credit Suisse.

Deutsche has spent millions hiring from its Swiss rival. The German bank is known for paying comparatively high salaries of around $500k to managing directors. It's recruited at least 10 senior people from Credit Suisse in the past six months.

Nor is stopping now. Alessandro Pelleriti, the Credit Suisse credit trader who resigned in February, has just joined Deutsche Bank. So too has William Mansfield, Credit Suisse's recently promoted head of EMEA M&A. So too has Lim Zi-Kuan, Credit Suisse's head of M&A for South East Asia, who joined Deutsche Bank as head of M&A for Asia after resigning earlier this month.

Deutsche Bank's latest flotilla of post-UBS Credit Suisse hires comes after all the other people it hired from CS as the bank began sinking below the surface. They include: Karen Miles, Credit Suisse's ex- EMEA head of high yield trading; Diego Discepoli, the ex-head of Credit Suisse's global credit products business in EMEA; Jonathan Moore, the incredibly popular person once in charge of global credit at Credit Suisse; and Vivek Nahar, once of Credit Suisse's top producers and the former head of high yield sales. 

While Deutsche is likely to have picked up some of these people cheaply (Nahar was inexplicably let go by CS, for example), it will also have bought others out of their cash bonuses, which are repayable plus income tax when people leave. Markets professionals at Credit Suisse didn't receive much in the way of bonuses for last year, but bankers were better rewarded as the bank sought to retain them for the deceased CS First Boston project.  

Deutsche is unlikely to be done with its CS hiring. People like John Estrada, Credit Suisse's global head of FX, could also be on its shopping list. Russell LaScala, Deutsche's London-based head of FX retired this month and although his seat has been filled internally, DB may feel that it's worth availing itself of more cheap talent from its struggling soon to be ex-rival. 

Click here to create a profile on eFinancialCareers. Make yourself visible to recruiters hiring for top jobs in technology and finance. 

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: [email protected] in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Stock Birken on Unsplash