How Deutsche Bank's FIC traders are slowly becoming the world's best
If you work in fixed income and currencies (FIC) sales & trading, you probably want to work for a bank that is on an upwards trajectory. Luckily for you, there is one.
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Data from market intelligence provider Tricumen suggests that Deutsche Bank's traders have been going from strength to strength in terms of individual productivity.
Tricumen’s data measures operating revenue per full-time front office employee, as compared to the peer-group average. In a nutshell: the dashed line in the middle of the charts is the average. Inside the circle are below average performers on this metric; outside the circle, the performers are above average.
Deutsche Bank’s slow creep further out of the circle does not signify brute hiring, but rather increased efficiency on a per-person basis.
Deutsche Bank hasn’t exactly poured money into its investment bank in the same time period. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, it had €145bn in risk-weight assets (RWAs) allocated to the investment bank, out of €339bn total; it had €137bn out of €352bn.
FIC is Deutsche Bank’s focus for its markets business. The bank shed its equities arm to BNP Paribas back in 2019.
As things stand, as of Q1 2025, 35% of Deutsche Bank's total revenue came from its FIC operations; by comparison, at fellow European bank BNP Paribas, it was less than 13%. And at UBS, it was barely 10%.
Although there have been new faces, there have been a lot of rather fast-paced exits. Caryn Freiberger and Shuo Wu left the bank last year; the heads of US FX institutional sales and London head of FX forwards it had hired within the last few years. FX heads Sameen Farooqui and Chris Leonard have hired since coming to power in 2021, with former fintech founder Oliver Jerome joining the bank to be head of European foreign exchange this time last year.
Also of note are Deutsche Bank's rates traders. They're in especially high demand, having been picked off by market maker Citadel Securities, hedge fund Verition, and trading firm DRW, among others.
Still, there are ways to go yet for Deutsche. In terms of operating revenues per head, Tricumen's data says Deutsche's FIC people are about on par with JPMorgan’s, but Goldman Sachs’ are still a step above; that might have something to do with Goldman’s bigger appetite for risk than its peers.
Q1 2025 FIC operating revenue per full-time employee by bank
Source: Tricumen Estimates
Q1 2024 FIC operating revenue per full-time employee by bank
Source: Tricumen Estimates
Q1 2023 FIC operating revenue per full-time employee by bank
Source: Tricumen Estimates
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