Barclays hires 18 from Credit Suisse in prime-brokerage push

BARCLAYS has hired 18 people from Credit Suisse Group’s prime-brokerage unit as the British bank continues its push to expand in the business. 

Most of the 18 new hires are located in the US, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing personnel information.

Roughly half will work in the sales division for Barclays’s prime brokerage, including in roles across origination sales and account management, the person said. 

A spokesman for Barclays declined to comment. 

Among the hires was Tom Luglio, previously co-head of prime sales in the Americas for Credit Suisse. He joined as a manging director and will report to David Lohuis, global head of prime financing.

John Dlubac, who was previously head of prime derivatives services and prime sales for Europe, the Middle East and Asia at Credit Suisse, also joined as a managing director. He will report to Craig Robertson, who runs US prime derivatives services and quant prime at Barclays.

Barclays chief executive officer CS Venkatakrishnan said last month that financing income has soared since 2018 as the bank has been investing in the division. Last year, Barclays’s prime brokerage ranked number 5 globally, up from ninth place 5 years earlier. 

“Obviously equity prime has been a growth area,” Venkatakrishnan said at the time. Fixed-income prime revenues are “starting to pick up with widening credit spreads and higher interest rates”.

Credit Suisse moved last year to discontinue most prime-brokerage operations after being burned by the Archegos Capital Management scandal. The bank has said it will permanently cut 69 employees from its workforce in New York City as it winds down the division there. The collapse of Bill Hwang’s family office led to billions of dollars of losses for the Zurich-based bank. 

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“We’ve shown you that the prime balances in our businesses have grown tremendously,” Venkatakrishnan told analysts on a conference call.

“Those are franchise relationships that endure and this happened because we’ve invested in that business. And they’ve had some competitors who’ve exited that business and we’ve been able to gain some market share from it.” BLOOMBERG