“I worry about this stuff 25 hours a day,” one FX head wryly tells Euromoney. Their businesses are under investigation; their own conduct is as well.
“We all know that if something comes up, we’ll never work in this industry again,” he adds.
They’ve already seen a number of senior FX bankers call time on the market and move on to pastures new. They know their own time to do so might come soon – whether of their own volition or because they have to.
Another head of FX says the climate of fear pervades the trading floor: “People are not just worried about losing their jobs; suddenly there are potential legal and even criminal issues at play, which comes completely out of the blue for those working in a market that was previously untouched by regulation.”
Some don’t even really feel like bankers anymore. “We’ve all turned into mini lawyers,” jokes one top-five bank chief. “Every email is read by at least nine people before you hit the send button.”
Many bankers in foreign exchange worry about the potential impact of a host of senior people, with all their collective experience, exiting the market at a time when that experience is needed to help reshape the industry.