When will the lateral market reopen in London?

Second year ASO at a reputable MM shop looking for a lateral movement to BB or EB in the coming months in London. I have not been very active in recruiting for the past 2 years because first I was focused on getting promoted internally, and second because I knew the IB environment was not the best. Over the past 12 months, IPO market has slowly recovered and M&A volumes are massively up vs. last 2 years, so it seems the market is much more robust compared to last few years. 

I have been looking for lateral opportunities, but I am very disappointed with the number of openings in London, even though it is true you see some few openings from time to time (Jeff or JPM mostly), I am surprised how big firms like MS, BoFA, Lazard or Evercore don´t have any spots available. I have been speaking with recruiters, but it seems they don´t have that many mandates either. When do you think Banks will start to seriously hire again? Early 2026? Summer 2026?

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Banks are in the process of rolling over new tools like Copilot, Rogo, or Mozaic, so I think from now on the lateral market will stay permanently weak. Even when someone leaves, firms will treat hiring a replacement as the very last resort. So even in strong market environments like we have now, I doubt we will ever see abundant openings in market again. 

But for the reason I commented, if you feel you need to lateral then you better do it as soon as possible while you can, because in two or three years it will be much more difficult. 

 

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