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Citi became the latest bank to impose guardrails against private equity firms poaching junior bankers for future-dated roles — a practice that can cut early banking careers short before they’ve properly begun.
The bank on Monday sent a memo to first-year investment bankers, welcoming them to the firm and informing them that they will have to “complete an attestation disclosing whether they have accepted any future employment offers from other employers.”
The bank said each analyst’s situation will be assessed on “a case-by-case basis,” adding that the measure “is intended to foster a fair and transparent environment for all.”
“We believe this proactive approach will benefit both our analysts and Citi, allowing us to attract and retain top talent while mitigating potential risks,” said the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs has also taken measures to protect against private equity poaching of young talent. Last week, the bank offered “select” young bankers an internal private equity career path to deter them from jumping ship. Goldman has also asked its young bankers to sign documents disclosing any future employment they may have agreed to, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
These are just the latest dominoes to fall in this year’s private equity recruiting tradition. It started with JPMorgan announcing in June that it would fire junior bankers who had accepted future-dated job offers. JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, has publicly expressed his contempt for the “unethical” process.
Several private equity giants, including Apollo, General Atlantic, and TPG, have since announced they will not begin interviews for 2027 candidates until next year.
The announcements were unprecedented moves in the uber-competitive recruiting process known as “on-cycle,” which in the past several years has meant that junior bankers were interviewing and signing job offers at buyout firms nearly two years in advance of their start date, and often before or shortly after they’d even begun their banking jobs.
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