Citi made some big cuts to its American equities business

On the final day of the first quarter, it's become apparent that Citi has been trimming some heads in its U.S equities sales and trading business. 

Sources say that at least five people, some of them senior, lost their jobs in New York earlier this week.

They are understood to include: Andy Brewster, a managing director and head of convertibles trading; Dan DiLorenzo, a director in delta one trading; Andrew Dawkins, a managing director and head of delta one sales;  Michael Zimberg, head of product development for prime brokerage technology; and Alex Taafe, a vice president in flow derivative sales. 

Brewster had worked at Citi for 19 years; Dawkins joined from BNP Paribas and Taafe joined from Deutsche in 2018; DiLorenzo joined from Goldman in 2013; Zimberg came from CPP Investment board in 2017. 

The cuts to the U.S. equities business come after Citi was seen sniping equities salespeople in continental Europe earlier this month. However, London headhunters say they haven't seen any dramatic exits in Europe yet. 

Citi has a newish head of equities in the form of Fater Belbachir, who joined from Barclays last year. Belbachir is expected to start stamping his authority on the business, and recently hired Daniel Nehren, Barclays' former  head of statistical modelling and development. "It was difficult for Fater to make changes last year as he joined mid-pandemic and no one wanted to make cuts. I think you're going to start seeing his changes this year," said one London equities headhunter. 

Citi declined to comment on the cuts. Taafe, Dawkins, Zimberg and Lorenzo didn't respond to requests to comment. Cuts to the delta one desk are seen as unsurprising as the business struggled at most banks in 2020: "Delta one guys everywhere have targets on their backs," said the headhunter. 

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