Credit Suisse Employees Flood Headhunters Looking For New Jobs

Bankers from the failed Credit Suisse Group AG are in the midst of creating a deluge for headhunters and job recruiters ahead of the banks takeover by UBS, according to a new Bloomberg report. 

"Anxious Credit Suisse staff" have created a flood of calls as they look for new jobs, the report says, with one firm in Singapore claiming it took in questions from 30 private bankers from Credit Suisse on Monday of this week alone. 

Another firm, focused just on managing director hires, said it has received similar interest since last Friday. 

The bank has about 5,500 employees in London, leading one job search firm to be receiving calls all throughout last week, especially from bankers in the equities division, where there's the most overlap with new parent company UBS. 

In New York, "several thousand people at Credit Suisse had been hoping to join Credit Suisse First Boston", one headhunter told Bloomberg. Others have turned their focus to trying to join UBS. 

But UBS doesn't seem keen to that plan, according to a second report:

UBS executives have told their Credit Suisse counterparts that they prefer selectively bolstering their own investment bank while dumping the riskier operations, the people said, asking for anonymity because the review has just begun and no final decisions have been made. In initial talks, the acquiring bank indicated little interest in continuing the planned effort for a CS First Boston carveout that would create a new competitor, the people said. 

All this means Klein’s dream of leading a new investment bank under the revived CS First Boston brand looks increasingly unlikely. Still, some Credit Suisse staff are holding out hope that Klein and banking chief David Miller can line up an alternative plan, the people said. Some executives have reached out to potential suitors for the investment bank including Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. to generate interest that they could then pitch to UBS, the people said.

Michael Nelson, managing director at recruitment firm Quest Group in New York, said: “If they aren’t going to CSFB they will have to be emigrated into UBS fixed-income, which is a much smaller business than Credit Suisse. My guess is they will dismiss them and turn them out onto the street.”

The alarm amongst current employees during the midst of Credit Suisse's "emergency rescue" is high. The deluge of job seekers ironically comes at a time when most banks - and businesses in most other industries - are in the process of reducing their staffs. 

One Singapore-based Credit Suisse spokeswoman concluded: “We are encouraging colleagues to continue to the best of their abilities against a difficult backdrop. Ultimately, we will do everything we can to ensure an orderly transition and to serve our clients as best as possible."