Citi trader reprimanded for Gaza stance is on paternity leave: "Really dumb"
Akshay Singal, the global head of short term interest rate (STIRT) trading at Citi, disagrees with what's happening in Gaza. Writing on his personal LinkedIn account yesterday, Singal said the time had come to speak out against the "genocide." “Silence isn’t neutrality. It’s complicity,” said Singhal. “Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza and killing of Palestinians is horrific and unacceptable.”
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
Less than 24-hours later, Bloomberg notes that Citi has obliged Singal to delete his comment. A spokesperson for the bank said: "We are aware of a social media post made by one of our employees that is inconsistent with our code of conduct. The post has been removed, and we are reviewing the matter."
As we reported in June, Singal is currently on six months' paternity leave and will return in January. He can probably afford to relax: Singal is thought to have had a good 2024 after correctly calling a rate cut last August, and Charan Dhinsa, one of Citi's top STIRT and a member of his team, is thought to be more than capable of maintaining pnl on the desk in his absence.
Singal didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. Gaza isn't his only moral stance: he's also a member of Millionaires for Humanity and is calling for a wealth tax alongside ex-Citi STIRT trader turned inequality campaigner Gary Stevenson.
One of Singal's former colleagues says posting about Gaza on LinkedIn was always going to cause an issue with the bank. "Really dumb. Have your views for sure but don’t publish with Citis name on your profile," he says. "Particularly while you're on paternity leave and being paid for six months at home."
Marcus Satha, another member of Citi's STIRT desk, took a long period of paternity leave in 2022 and then left the bank a year-or-so later. If Singal wants to express his views frankly on LinkedIn, he could do the same.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)
