Citi banking MDs moving to the fertile plains of Deutsche Bank may be wary now
If you're an investment banking managing director (MD) who's feeling unhappy with the new regime at Citi, you might feel like joining your old regime at Deutsche Bank. But the recent fate of one who made that journey four years ago should give you cause to pause.
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Ed McBride spent 12 years working in consumer banking for Citi, where he led coverage of the consumer, leisure and real estate sectors in the UK, before leaving for reasons that were unclear in 2021. McBride then joined Deutsche Bank, where he reported to Daniel Ross, the former Barclays banker who became Deutsche's co-head of banking around the same time.
Ross himself left Deutsche Bank and joined Rothschild in December 2024 and now Financial News reports that McBride is also out. It's not clear why and it's not clear where he's going. Neither McBride nor Deutsche Bank responded to requests to comment for this article. Multiple sources tell us McBride actually left a month ago, seemingly before bonuses were announced or paid.
Deutsche Bank's investment banking and capital markets (IBCM) division is run by Alison Harding Jones, the former head of M&A at Citi. Citi bankers looking for exits have been inclined to give her a call. After hiring 115 bankers in 2023 and 125 bankers in 2024, Deutsche Bank said in November that it wants another 60 bankers in 2026.
However, Citi MDs eyeing a new role with Harding Jones might want to move cautiously. Despite its new senior bankers, Deutsche Bank has underperformed: M&A revenues there rose by only 1% last year, compared to double digit increases at most banks and a 53% rise at Citi. This is partly down to coverage: Deutsche is strongest in sectors where deals were few in 2025; it wants to ameliorate this with new recruits "industrials, FIG, healthcare and tech" in 2026.
As Deutsche adds yet more MDs, some insiders are complaining that it already has too many senior bankers chasing too few deals. "It's too crowded on the top," says one.
The DB consumer team which shed McBride has at least five MDs in London. They include Siddharth Malik, the co-head of consumer banking who joined from BofA in 2023; Robert Plowman, who joined from Citi in 2023; Clemence Kaniak, who was promoted last year; Robert Ohnsorge, who covers the luxury sector; and Pablo Bowen, whom Deutsche hired as an MD from BofA (where he was only a director) last October. As we reported last May, the top-heavy nature of the team has been encouraging overworked juniors to leave.
With this in mind, Deutsche's analysts and associates may welcome McBride's exit. Gillian Wilson, another MD on the consumer team, also left last June and has since resurfaced at PJT.
Other MDs thinking of joining Deutsche from Citi and other banks should probably take note. Deutsche needs to show a return on its hiring investments. If it's not forthcoming - even in this newly difficult market - patience may wear thin.
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