It's not just New York - HSBC traders are leaving in London too

As HSBC executes its strategy of pivoting to Asia but remaining committed to London and New York, there are signs that it might be encountering some issues. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the bank has been losing traders in NYC with "at least 10 people" disappearing from the credit desk following weak bonuses, even though HSBC says the Americas is an "important market."

There have also been multiple quiet departures in London.

One recent exit is Jonathan Cheesman, who was hired by HSBC in 2019 as a senior FX salesman. Cheesman, who previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Barclays, left for crypto exchange FTX, where he'll reportedly be head of OTC institutional sales. Amol Mandrekar, a director of hedge fund sales at HSBC is also understood to have left and is thought to be joining Bank of America.

HSBC isn’t commenting on Cheesman and Mandrekar’s disappearance, but they follow the exits of at least six other salespeople and traders in Europe in the first quarter of this year. They include: Julien Serror, the former head of cross currency swap trading, who joined Credit Agricole in London; David Veit in fixed income sales, who went back to Credit Suisse (in Zurich); Sofiane Bouchouicha in credit trading who went to Bank of America in Paris; Onder Turker in emerging markets rates trading, who went to Continental Capital Markets in Switzerland; Ricardo Cima who went Natixis in Paris; and Benedikt Singer, who went to Nomura in Frankfurt.  Chris Lee in Hong Kong has also just joined Nomura's FX team. 

The exits may not exactly be critical - search firm Eton Clarke estimates that banks like Deutsche have had more this year, but they suggest that HSBC is having some issues keeping people following a year in which bonuses were squeezed. They leave the team depleted despite the arrival of Simon Lomas as global head of FX sales from HSBC New York last year.

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