There aren’t many Alex types in banking anymore. The popular middle-aged cartoon banker, greyer and greyer since the 1980s, is regularly depicted in the Daily Telegraph gazing sagely over the heads of panicked young traders, safe in the knowledge he’s seen it all before. Older traders like him are few and far between now. Instead, Britain’s banks and investment firms have been left largely in the hands of the youngsters, a generation too used to working in an era of free money. It’s a troubling thought.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, expensive and experienced senior bankers have been cast out, replaced by younger, cheaper rivals. Credit Suisse was forced into a desperate rehiring scramble in 2021 after it was criticised for ‘juniorisation’ in the risk department. The report by Paul Weiss, a law firm, found that significant cost-cutting in recent years had led to 40 per cent of senior risk managers leaving Credit Suisse. The bank isn’t alone: Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Barclays are also staffed by younger employees, according to a 2016 report by eFinancialCareers.
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