09-07-2025
Goldman Demands Junior Banker Fealty in PE Rivalry
Goldman Sachs is said to be planning to ask junior bankers to confirm their loyalty in a bid to limit advances from talent-hungry buyout firms, asking new analysts to certify every three months that they haven't lined up jobs elsewhere. The move is meant to thwart poaching by private equity firms that have been descending upon junior bankers near the start of their on-the-job training. Some buyout shops are even approaching rookies before they show up for their analyst programs.
Such strict rules though run counter to efforts by banks to maintain long-term goodwill with employees who may go elsewhere on Wall Street or even come back someday. And previous attempts to tighten controls on analysts have backfired. In 2013, Morgan Stanley ditched a policy to block junior bankers from talking with recruiters for outside firms after some of them complained, Bloomberg News reported at the time.
