How much does Citi love Vis Raghavan? And how much was Vis Raghavan loved by JPMorgan? Both things may be measured in Raghavan’s gigantic Citi stock award, which reflects the amount Citi had to pay to buy him out.
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The Financial Times reports that Citi has awarded Raghavan $40m in stock, vesting over a seven-year period until 2031.
The award underscores Citi’s belief that Raghavan can rev up Citi’s investment banking business. It also reflects the enormous bonuses paid to Raghavan at JPMorgan: the filing explicitly states that the $40m is to replace “awards cancelled by a prior employer” when Raghavan left.
Raghavan will be based in New York with Citi, but he was in London with JPMorgan and his bonuses must vest in line with the mandatory UK deferral schedule. None of Raghavan’s $40m award can be sold immediately. 28% vests in January 2026; 23% vests in January 2027; 20% vests in January 2028; 15% vests in January 2029; 9% vests in January 2030; the remaining 4% vests in January 2031.
Although Raghavan wasn’t entirely popular at JPMorgan, and stands accused of being more of an administrator than banker by some disgruntled former colleagues, JPMorgan clearly thought he was special. Raghavan appears to have had far more stock than either Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh, the new co-heads of its corporate and investment bank. In February, we noted that Piepszak had a mere $6m in stock, while Rohrbaugh had $30m. They’ve worked at JPMorgan since 1994 and 2005 respectively.
The FT notes that Raghavan’s $40m from Citi isn’t the extent of his pay. His full remuneration package has yet to be disclosed. This might be why, even though his new stock doesn’t start vesting until 2026, Raghavan has purchased a $15m New York apartment latterly rented out to the rapper Bad Bunny. The New York Post notes that Bad Bunny was paying $150k a month to live there, so Raghavan can always find a tenant if he needs extra cash while he waits for his stock to vest.
Separately, after Ralf Donner, Goldman’s head of fixed income, currencies and commodities execution solutions, warned earlier this week that margins are being squeezed so hard on algorithmic trading that it’s getting difficult for banks to make investments in products and analytics, Citadel Securities has coincidentally concocted a plan for world domination.
Bloomberg reports that Citadel Securities plans to offer a white label trading service to banks that don’t want the hassle of investing in the platforms and analytics themselves. Instead, those banks could enter into a “partnership” in which they would share revenues with Citadel Securities, and where Citadel Securities’ platform (and presumably staff) would do most of the work of managing orders and executing trades.
Citadel Securities isn’t commenting on the allegations. Salespeople and traders in some banks may want to consider jobs with Ken Griffin.
Meanwhile…
Regulators hit Citi with $136m in fines for failing to resolve long-standing deficiencies surrounding controls and risk management. Citi has made insufficient progress on problems first identified in a 2020 consent order, which required Citigroup to address deficiencies in its enterprise-wide risk management, compliance risk management, data governance, and internal controls. (Yahoo)
“We have new clients like top executives who are asking what they can do to shield themselves. Following Brexit there was an influx of bankers into France, but these high-earners will leave because they won’t want to pay more taxes.” (Bloomberg)
PwC has curtailed a pandemic-era perk of allowing staff to take a half-day on Fridays during the summer, reducing the benefit from eight weeks last year to six weeks. The policy was in place for 12 weeks in 2022. (Financial Times)
Point72 hired Stergios Pantostis from Moore Capital as a portfolio manager. (Financial News)
Bernard Mensah, president of international operations at Bank of America, says capital markets activity is picking up. The question is whether it will “continue through in Q3 and Q4,” he said, adding “there are big election cycles, sometimes people are a little bit cautious ahead of that.” (Bloomberg)
David Solomon’s rehabilitation is complete at Goldman Sachs. (Fortune)
Dating a man at Goldman Sachs:”I have a London girl. You’re my American girl, and I have a girl in Berlin.” (Business Insider)
Moonpay, a crypto payments company, plans to add 20 people in the UK. (Bloomberg)
Samuel Reinhardt, UBS’s head of banks and diversified industrials, is joining BC Partners credit. (Bloomberg)
Revolut now employs 331 staff in risk and compliance functions alone. (Bloomberg)
“There’s a massive imbalance between supply and demand for leveraged loans.” (WSJ)
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