LDN BB IB: Italians all over the place?

First year here:

Am I the only one who is completely annoyed by Italians in LDN BB M&A teams?

It sometimes seems these folks do stick together across ranks like mafia, simply due to the same passport - and beyond any good business means.

Some colleagues around me feel it is a key driver of really bad gossip and politics in my team with some average to even non-performing Italian juniors being firmly positioned as stars and even pouring oil into the fire.

Although some of my colleagues shake their heads and think the same, many are not really surprised as they are used to it and heard the same from friends at competitors... really??

Guys, is that true? Can you actually confirm similar things or is this non-sense after all with me having bad luck on my current team (>30 ppl)??

11 Comments
 

OMG. wow...

What the hell is the reason for such a LDN/BB-wide misery???

This can’t be an economic interest of all BBs in the long-run?

Pushing an above average number of clearly mediocre French, Spanish, Italian dudes into more senior positions because of nothing else but best internal bonding (and all things related to it??).

It is not like these three countries form the majority of potential deals in EU/EMEA, am I right?

Why is this happening in London in one of the industries which considers itself to be closest to meritocracy??? Am I too naive?

I think, I am just waking up -.- -.- -.-

 
Most Helpful

They actually do form the majority of big deals together with Germany. Deal volume in the UK is down 47% YoY. It is both in the economic interest of the banks to have foreigners on the M&A teams because they get more mandates with locals on the team.

Disclaimer: I only hung out with Swedes and Norwegians when I was in London, but never saw a problem with that. People stick to their own kin.

I don't know... Yeah. Almost definitely yes.
 

Give it a try! Will leave it uncommented.

Either you are right or I will know which other teams I better avoid going forward ;-)

 

This isn't just a problem with Italians and it isn't just a problem in IB. As to the particularity of your situation, seems you are not the only one.

 

Appreciate your comment but you are generalising things beyond the scope of this thread here.

For LDN BB IBD, I still think it might be an annoying reality and if so, it is about the Italians, the French and maybe the Spanish - There are certain patterns which just seem to repeat across teams without dominant economic reasons...

This is nothing against the Italians, or the French, or the Spanish, or anyone else in particular, don’t get me wrong.

Still, I try to understand the dynamics in greater detail. Economically, this gives no greater advantage to anyone in a BB but these groups...

 

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