The trickle of talent out of the ABN Amro investment bank is growing. Justin May , head of debt capital markets, was sent on his way at the end of last week with a round of applause from colleagues.

His departure comes as RBS, ABN's new owner, reorganises its DCM business into two units, one for corporate issuers and the other for financial institutions and governments. It is not clear where or when Mr May will resurface, but the applause is probably ahead of an interval, rather than curtain down. Reshuffling among the players in the debt game also sees Lazard hiring Michael Grayer as head of debt advisory in London, to help out clients with their balance sheets. Mr Grayer joins Lazard from GE Commercial Finance, where he was in charge of institutional loans. Before that he spent 13 years at UBS, most recently as co-head of european leveraged finance. Meanwhile, another alumnus from the UBS leverage finance business, John Sinik , is to join private equity firm TowerBrook, looking for distressed investments made by rival private equity groups.