Citigroup is founding a hub for brand new funding bankers within the southern Spanish metropolis of Malaga, because the Wall Road lender seeks to achieve an edge within the fierce warfare for expertise by providing youthful staff a greater work-life steadiness.
The financial institution is recruiting 30 so-called “junior banking analysts” from universities round Europe for the brand new unit, hoping that Malaga’s 320 days of sunshine a yr and cheaper price of residing will appeal to a extra various vary of candidates, Manolo Falcó, international co-head of funding banking, advised the Monetary Instances.
In distinction to the brutal 95-hour weeks which have change into typical within the sector and have led to complaints about burnout, the graduates will work a much less arduous eight hours a day and have their weekends protected.
They are going to be paid round half the $100,000 or extra beginning wage for first-year analysts in London or New York. That determine has vastly inflated in recent times as funding banks battle to retain overworked younger workers, significantly amid a dealmaking increase within the pandemic.
“The message is obvious: the important thing driver behind many junior departures is the seek for a greater work-life steadiness,” Falcó mentioned. “At Citi, we’re listening and to deal with this . . . an improved and better-balanced way of life might be a defining characteristic” of the brand new hub.
These in Malaga might be employed along with the roughly 100 funding banking and capital markets analysts Citi hires every year within the Emea area, unfold throughout workplaces in London, Madrid, Paris, Milan and Frankfurt.
After two years, those that have carried out nicely could have the chance to use for a full analyst function.
Funding banks have been harshly criticised just lately for overworking their most junior workers. Final yr exhausted Goldman Sachs analysts circulated a slide deck detailing 15 hour days and office abuse, exacerbated by the isolation of homeworking through the pandemic.
In response, nearly all banks have considerably boosted salaries to $100,000 or extra — with huge bonuses on high — in addition to providing perks like free Peloton train bikes, tablets and wi-fi headphones.
Nacho Gutiérrez-Orrantia, Citi’s Emea head of funding banking and capital markets, mentioned the brand new hub was an try and “attempt one thing completely different”.
“It’s extra about high quality of life, in a spot that’s well-connected, with a welcoming enterprise atmosphere in an inexpensive metropolis with robust potential to draw high expertise,” he mentioned. “It’s a new entry level into the enterprise.”
Malaga has additionally attracted different multinational corporations in recent times resembling Google, which situated a brand new cyber safety centre there final yr, and Vodafone, which is opening a brand new €225mn, 600 individual R&D hub.