Standard Chartered extracted a long serving European DCM guy from Citi

24 July 2026

2 minute read

It's been a while since we've written about Citi's London debt capital markets (DCM) business. This is good, and implies that the business - which was losing people last year - is no longer doing so.

It's notable, then, that someone else has just left Citi's London DCM business after an apparent hiatus in the departures. That person is Adrian Bain, who had been there 15 years.

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Bain was a director on the European debt financing team at Citi. He joined the bank as an analyst in the days of yore (2011) in South Africa. He's joining Standard Chartered focused on financing solutions covering Africa, but will be based in London.

Bain didn't respond to a request to comment for this article.

Last August, Citi hired Rob Cascarino from JPMorgan as its London based co-head of DCM. Paul Gibbs, who was once head of EMEA DCM for the bank left in May 2026 according to the FCA Register.

Citi ranked third for EMEA DCM with $308m of revenues in the first half according to Dealogic. It ranked sixth for international EMEA DCM by volume, 2nd for CEEMEA, and fourth and fifth for investment grade and high yield. Citi was outside the top ten for FIG DCM in EMEA.

Various members of the FIG DCM team have left Citi in recent years. They include Tommaso Ponsele (now at Goldman) and Colm Rainey (now at Credit Agricole). Last June, Citi made Paul-Emmanuel Micolet its head of FIG DCM in EMEA. Micolet is presumably charged with getting the bank back on the FIG league table.

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AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

TS
TS100
24 July 2026
I am not surprised. The never ending restructuring has stopped growth and in many ways pushed people down the pecking order even if it’s not on their paper title. Experienced directors reporting to newly brought in junior D who a year ago would have been VPS. Markets in some product areas has naturally improved. Doesn’t mean the alpha is from new folk. People have now been waiting for growth for nearly 5 years!!! It’s a mess. Everyone I know wants to leave (and sure enough they will as these sporadic openings come up). There was really no need to drag the restructure for 5 years. You wanna chop, chop and get done! Weird titles are also mushrooming - SVP = Director, Senior D = MD. All to send stats to Jane Fraser. Sensibility has gone out of the window. Technology and AI a joke. some of the technology execs are minting money from Citi rolling out useless expensive systems that not a single person in the bank is finding value adding. In the end, these systems get passed down to middle office who are bullied into using it. Hundreds of new managers are then hired for training and KPIs tracking for use of AI. People are desperate to leave whether you are in FO or MO. In Uk , exits are harder due to a sluggish economy but whoever finds a green shoot leaves. Bottom line - new folk are not adding alpha. They are only creating confusion and crushing morale. They are only as smart as the existing folk or just lucky to make it to Vis’s inside circle even if sub-par in some instances.
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