Alok Modi: The top trader that Deutsche Bank doesn't want to lose
Deutsche Bank's fixed income trading business is having a good year. Speaking earlier this week, Deutsche Bank CFO James Von Moltke said revenues there will be up by a single digit percentage but ahead of expectations in the third quarter. This follows a 14% year-on-year increase in the first half, placing the bank second only to Barclays for fixed income revenue growth.
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In Europe, some of this growth is down to the success of Deutsche's rates trading business, which insiders say is taking market share from rivals. That business is run by Alok Modi, a Morgan Stanley trader who joined five years ago.
Before Modi joined Deutsche Bank in January 2020, the bank ranked outside the top five for rates trading in both EMEA and globally, according to data from market intelligence company BCG Expand. In the first half of this year, BCG says DB's rates business ranked third in EMEA and fourth globally.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment for this article, and Modi didn't respond to a request to comment. Rivals in the market said his team has been "flexing" and gaining market share, as well as scouring the market for talent. "They have become very relevant again," says one headhunter. "Deutsche is now one of the best banks to work for in the rates space in London." Insiders say the bank is having a record year.
Modi has been hiring. Amedeo Scippacercola, the former head of government bond trading at RBS and Mizuho joined the desk this month in London. Pierfrancesco Bertoldi is joining from Intesa San Paolo. Additional hires are thought to have arrived in sales.
They follow a spate of departures. Jamie Mansell, the head of euro bond trading, left for Balyasny in June. In 2023, at least four senior traders - Josh Hooker, Daryl Li, Kilian Frensch and Hemish Shah, left the rates team. Hooker and Li went to BlueCrest while Shah and Frensch went to Nomura. Initially, there were fears that Modi would follow Shah, with whom he'd worked at both Barclays and Morgan Stanley before joining DB. He didn't.
As Modi's desk drives profitability, minds will wander to bonuses. Mansell reportedly generated over €200m in profits for Deutsche Bank "in recent years" and clearly felt he could earn more at a hedge fund. No one knows how much Modi himself is paid. Someone at Deutsche Bank earned €18m last year, but it was seemingly not him.
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