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Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are emerging as the biggest beneficiaries in London from the crisis ripping through US banks as they move to hire some of the capital's best bankers.
The three banking giants are among those who do not face restrictions on bonus payments to staff because, unlike most of their rivals worldwide, they did not take government bailout cash like the multi-billion-dollar Tarp scheme in the US.
A source at one bank that has been actively hiring from Merrill Lynch (now owned by Bank of America), Goldman Sachs and UBS, which was bailed out by the Swiss taxpayer, said: "For Goldman and the like, the next few months are crucial. They have to get out of the Tarp agreements soon because before you know it the employee pay reviews will be under way. Staff are very nervous."
Today, Barclays, whose Barclays Capital arm has hired 450 in the past six months, said it could take on 65 more for its European mergers and acquisitions and equities teams.
Deutsche has hired about 35 senior executives in recent weeks, particularly in credit and bond issuance fields. Credit Suisse has hired a couple of dozen including Chris Williams of Citigroup and Olivier Barret of Morgan Stanley.
