The Italian stallion rides again in Barclays' rates business

As we reported last week, Barclays' macro business has lost Hamza Houmaddy, its popular European head of rates trading. This seems unfortunate, but is maybe fine because an old face has simultaneously reappeared.

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Julien Ercole, an Italian trader who insiders say is known for huge and successful risk-taking and who disappeared to hedge fund Point72 in late 2023, has returned. Barclays declined to comment and Ercole didn't respond to a request to comment but the FCA Register shows him arriving at the bank on October 5th.

Ercole is not thought to be directly replacing Houmaddy, but insiders say he has a reputation for being ambitious and may want a big job. Last time he was at Barclays, he was head of peripheral government bond trading, based in Milan. He's understood to have made his name trading CCTs, or Italian floating rate bonds and to have conjured a nine figure profit from this before he left. 

Ercole spent 17 months at Point72 and left in March 2025. He's returned to Barclays at an interesting time following the departure of Houmaddy and poor performance of the European rates business, which was called out in Barclays' Q3 results. It presumably didn't help that Barclays has been diverting money away from its macro business and towards prime services as it intentionally rebalances in favour of equities. 

Barclays' rates business includes some remarkable specimens. Mark Wade from Nomura joined as a trader earlier this month. Puni Raja in sales is thought to be having a big year. 

Ercole has good credentials. Like many Italians in the market he studied at Bocconi. Then he completed a Master's at the LSE. 

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