Now London bankers are wondering why that JPMorgan guy didn't go to Citi

As we observed here yesterday, Shameer Patel, a mainstay on the JPMorgan equity capital markets (ECM) syndicate desk for many years, who was nonetheless only an executive director, is going to BNP Paribas. There, he will become head of ECM syndicate globally. 

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It's quite a step-up. We have not spoken to Shameer, but his motivation for the move was presumably the fact that he was offered an enormous promotion at BNP Paribas involving a role that was reportedly created especially for him.

Despite this, some of Patel's former colleagues have been querying his choice of destination. If he wanted to leave JPMorgan, they say he should have tried Citi. After all, Citi is now home to various ex-JPMorgan ECM bankers, including Vis Raghavan, Achtinya Mangla, Aloke Gupte and Bernal Vargas, among many others. Citi would have been a home from home. Even Ed Sankey, the "best ECM banker in the world," whom Citi hired from HSBC and who previously spent 15 years at Deutsche Bank, worked with Vis at JPMorgan in the very distant past. Citi is also hiring: Vis Raghavan said last month that he wants to increase senior banker headcount by 15% this year. 

So why hasn't Patel gone to Citi too? One former colleague suggests it's because Patel is not one of Vis and Achtinya's people. Another suggests it's because the lure of higher pay and a bigger title at BNP Paribas was so great. Another suggests the non-solicitation agreements signed by people like Aloke Gupte won't lapse until the end of this year and that Citi can't hire ECM people directly from JPMorgan until this happens.

JPMorgan and Citi declined to comment for this article. One former colleague of Patel said he's a talented banker who might have chosen Citi were it not for BNP Paribas' brilliant offer and the fact that Citi is already "full" with some of the most experienced and talented ECM bankers you will find in the industry. He said many of these very talented bankers have been looking askance at the FT's recent article on Vis Raghavan and have concluded that JPMorgan is just unhappy because one of its "best bankers left." - "It is not worthwhile even reading it," he said.

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