The investment-banking ranks at Citigroup continue to thin. In the latest departure, Ian Hart, co-head of European mergers and acquisitions at the US banking giant, is departing for Morgan Stanley, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley confirmed.

Citi, which the US government will soon own as much as 34% of, has been hit by a number of senior-level investment-banking departures. The government ownership - something a raft of banks around the world have been forced to take - is the bane of high-flying, and well-paid, deal makers. Morgan Stanley, though, has paid back the government money it took during the depths of the credit crisis.