'No one can understand what he says,' says the Barclays insider of Deasy. It's a move that doesn't appear to be popular. Deasy, who had only recently been promoted at Credit Suisse and who hadn't previously been based in New York, is now managing Barclays' US M&A bankers.

In January this year, Barclays appointed Cathal Deasy, who was himself the former global co-head of M&A, and EMEA Co-Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Credit Suisse, as its co-head of investment banking, based out of New York.

However, the real reason that Barclays' senior M&A bankers are leaving may have less to do with the pull from UBS and more to do with the push from Barclays itself. 'There are very few good people left at Credit Suisse and UBS knows that.' Senior Credit Suisse bankers have been quitting for everywhere from Spanish bank Santander to Truist and Morgan Stanley. 'The Credit Suisse people in the US are actually not that great,' they say. Senior sources at Barclays who've been party to the talks say it's because most of the best Credit Suisse bankers have gone already. UBS's decision to hire swathes of senior bankers immediately after its forced merger with Credit Suisse looks curious. After all, when the merger was announced, UBS chairman Colm Kelleher said that adding Credit Suisse's US bankers to the UBS franchise would help achieve one of UBS's 'strategic goals.' Why hire externally now? Valla, Tittle, Meyer, Ramos, Hardegree and Braham are former Lehmanites. They were preceded by Marco Valla, Jeff Hinton and Kurt Anthony, who left last month.Īll those listed have gone to UBS. The departures that emerged this week include: Laurence Braham, Richard Hardegree, Richard Casavechia, Ozzie Ramos, Jason Williams, Neil Meyer and Ken Tittle. Six joined when Barclays acquired Lehman Brothers in 2008. Most had been with Barclays for a decade or more.

The Barclays exits so far are all senior people at managing director level. Since then, at least 10 senior M&A bankers have quit, all for UBS. We suggested in early April that there might be trouble afoot in Barclays' US M&A business, and it seems we were right.

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