Big US banks shedding star financiers, traders

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (AFP): Crippled by lawsuits linked to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, American banks are grappling with an exodus of its best bankers and traders, lured by the huge salaries of little-regulated hedge funds.
Michael Cavanagh (48) was the favourite to succeed Jamie Dimon at the head of JPMorgan Chase, the nation's biggest bank. But he gave up on that golden prospect in March to join the Carlyle Group instead.
"He is fine," a banker friend told the news agency, requesting anonymity so he could speak freely about Cavanagh's decision. He said Cavanagh has no plans to return to JPMorgan.
Many renowned bankers and traders have chosen the same path in recent months, leaving Wall Street for hedge funds or to build ventures of their own.
In June, Bank of America lost Bill Egan, who had served as co-head of Bank of America Corp.'s global financial institutions group. He joined Oaktree.
And Jeff Feig also left his post as a top foreign exchange banker at Citigroup in June, just months after the bank lost its global head of foreign exchange, Anil Prasad.
Anthony Noto, who helped Twitter make its initial public offering, joined the social messaging platform in early July from Goldman Sachs.
And in another sign of the trend, one of Wall Street's most powerful women, Blythe Masters, left JPMorgan in April.
She helped develop credit default swaps, complex financial instruments that provide insurance against non-payment of debt. They are accused of having played a major role in triggering the financial crisis.