- A 25-year-old Bank of America trader died of ‘cardiac arrest’ on Thursday
- The young trader reportedly collapsed and was given CPR at a company event
- It comes just two weeks after another Bank of America employee died
A 25-year-old Bank of America trader has died of a suspected cardiac arrest at a company event.
Adnan Deumic died suddenly on Thursday while playing a five-on-five soccer match at a tournament with bank colleagues.
The young trader, based in the bank’s London office, collapsed and was given CPR, a source told the New York Post.
‘The death of our teammate is a tragedy, and we are shocked by the sudden loss of a popular, young colleague,’ a spokesman for Bank of America said.
‘We are committed to providing our full support to Adnan’s family, his friends and to our many employees grieving his loss.’
Deumic was under a large amount of stress at work, where he would be handling trades of up to $1 billion, the Post reported.
‘He probably worked 11 to 12 hours a day and those hours were incredibly intense… he didn’t have time to get coffee,’ the source told the publication.
Adding: ‘The stress he was under was so much more than any of the other analysts and he couldn’t take a day off.
‘He was learning to do this all when he was very new to the job.’
According to the source, Deumic was not happy with the bank, which he said did not treat him well, and he was trying to ‘get out.’
‘He was not happy, he was looking at other jobs,’ the source explained.
No connection has been drawn between Deumic’s work and death, and no official cause of death has yet been announced.
It comes just two weeks after another Bank of America employee died of ‘acute coronary artery thrombus.’
Leo Lukenas III, 35, died just one year into the grueling investment banking job and had been looking for a new job because he was working more than 100 hours a week.
The father-of-two and former member of the Army’s Special Forces moved to banking last summer in an attempt to ‘pursue new opportunities for his family,’ according to his loved ones.
The Brooklyn resident had reportedly recently worked on UMB’S $2billion deal acquisition of Heartland Financial USA, Inc.
Lukenas said in mid-March that he wanted to leave Bank of America because of the grueling hours, Douglas Walters, a managing partner at GrayFox Recruitment, told Reuters in an interview.
He is said to have expressed a desire to take a 10 percent pay cut in return for more sleep and was considering a move to a smaller ’boutique’ investment bank at the time of his death that he hoped would offer a better work-life balance.
While Lukenas’ death was officially attributed to ‘natural causes,’ it has sparked claims from Wall Street workers who say the industry’s conditions are unsustainable, particularly when ironing out a big deal.
Current and former investment bankers told Business Insider that Lukena’s death has prompted concern inside BoA and particularly among the junior ranks.
One junior banker at BoA said of Lukenas’ death: ‘I think what we all would want is some acknowledgement about what happened, and at least not completely dismiss the fact that it could have been work-related.
‘And to at least just start having those conversations as to how they can make junior bankers work life much better because it’s been long overdue. And I believe that, if anything, it’s gotten worse.’
Lukenas was part of the financial institutions group (FIG) team that advises bank clients on deals, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The insider told BI the FIG team is particularly grueling and recent departures had added work to those who stayed.
The current BoA banker said there have been meetings following Lukenas’ death about the possibility of reducing hours and more opportunities to work from home.
A former banker at BoA told BI he quit last year after a period of time where he regularly worked 100-hour weeks while receiving no support for exhaustion or burnout.
They said: ‘It got to a point where I would wake up and immediately feel like I needed to throw up… My mental health was really bad. I felt very unsupported by my team.’
Bank of America previously said ‘our focus is on doing whatever we can to support the family and our team, who is devastated.’
The bank is also paying for any staff to attend the late banker’s funeral, it said.
