Looking for a man in finance? Where out of towners seek a wealthy husband

LONDON — The 16:55 train from Chelmsford in Essex pulls into London’s Liverpool Street station 36 minutes later on a sunny Thursday afternoon, unleashing crowds of young women looking for “the one.”
They don’t have far to go — their destination is a two minute walk from the station: the drinking spot of Broadgate Circle. Dwarfed by the skyscrapers above, the area is built like an amphitheater, with a raised platform in the middle and myriad of bars surrounding the center.
And for more a decade, it’s played host to an extraordinary spectacle: some of the City’s best-paid employees, who work in the historic financial district that is the square mile, head there for after work drinks on a Thursday, joined by those who wish to emulate them — and the women seeking them out as potential husband material. 
Kylie Adamson and two of her friends from Essex, a commuter town to the east of London, sipped on rosé one early evening in mid-August as they were approached by POLITICO. Asked whether she and her friends, all in their mid-20s, had come to seek out a man in finance, she paused to think about the question. “Well, you wouldn’t want a poor boyfriend, would you?” she responded.
Her friend, Amy Dunn, agreed but was uncertain about the appeal of a man in finance because of past experiences. “I just broke up with a crypto bro,” she said. “I don’t want to hear about any of that shit anymore.” 
Another 20-something woman in a separate group, who did not want to give her name, was ordering a pink cocktail from the bar. She said Broadgate Circle is the “only place to go in central London on a Thursday,” adding that it’s better than dating apps and she wants to find a man who would help her buy a car, because she doesn’t like her car.
She, like others quoted in this article, were granted anonymity because they preferred not to openly discuss their private lives.
Sat a few tables over, one private banker, a man working at Swiss financial behemoth UBS, said he wasn’t on dating apps, adding that: “My dating app is right here,” referring to Broadgate Circle.
On that Thursday evening, not all of the clientele were willing to play ball however. The UBS private banker was joined by two colleagues; asked what kind of woman seeks out a man in finance, another of them responded drily: “Well, there are a lot of people from Essex here.” 
Adamson and Dunn, who both work in human resources for a company in another part of London, would be heading home to Essex later that evening. The prevalence of women from the county using Broadgate Circle as their Thursday drinking locale has led to the weekly gathering being dubbed “Towie on Thames,” a nod to the legendary TV drama “The Only Way is Essex,” called “Towie” for short.
For Generation Z, the greatest cultural contribution of the financial services industry this summer is not a film, book, or newspaper. It is a viral TikTok song, so pervasive that even those who do not use the short-video app can sing along as soon as they hear the words: “I’m looking for a man in finance.”
For any readers who choose to not use social media, the lyrics in their entirety are: “I’m looking for a man in finance, trust fund, 6’5″, blue eyes.”
The satirical song, viewed tens of millions of times and remixed by multi-award-winner DJ David Guetta, has prompted publications to go searching for the elusive blue-eyed giant and write opinion articles questioning whether the tune accurately depicts what women want from a relationship. 
Closer to home, one of the private bankers, quoted above, who was strikingly handsome, privately educated and had blue eyes, joked that he would disappoint women inspired by the TikTok song, because he is “only 6’1.” 
Height aside, a City salary may be necessary to afford a certain lifestyle. Former U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt came under fire earlier this year for claiming that a £100,000 pay check “doesn’t go as far as you might think.” He argued that taking into account taxes, housing costs and childcare, even a high earner may not be left with much spare cash.
In the U.K, where interest rates reached a 15-year high in August 2023, stayed there for almost a year, and inflation finally hit its 2 percent target in May after peaking at double digits (although has since crept back up to 2.2 percent), life is undeniably expensive.
That is on display clearly in Broadgate Circle where a glass of wine costs around £10. So, is finding a financially supportive partner more important than ever?
“Everybody wants to be treated well,” said Adamson.
Yet since the 2008 financial crisis, the life of a banker has changed somewhat. One of the private bankers said the “party vibe” of banking had disappeared. Asked if bankers lived up to the “Wolf of Wall Street” stereotype and imbibed a lot of cocaine, he said: “Absolutely not.” 
After his colleagues burst out laughing, he changed his statement to: “Well, not at work.” 
While the party days may be a thing of the past, the high salaries are not. In October 2023, financial regulators confirmed they would do away with a cap on bankers’ bonuses — a rule imposed when the U.K. was a member of the EU, which even the Bank of England disliked as it meant individuals would earn more as a base salary, rather than in variable remuneration.
Bonuses can be “clawed back” in future if an individual is found guilty of wrongdoing even years after the event, which regulators prefer.
Since this announcement, banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan confirmed they would cull the cap, meaning employees can earn mammoth bonuses. 
Men in finance are aware of their intense cultural impact: they are the subject of both mockery and devotion. One of the private bankers joked he makes working in finance “his entire personality.” 
But the lifestyle comes with long hours. One man, granted anonymity to speak freely, who worked in mergers & acquisitions at Barclays, questioned whether women coming to Broadgate Circle would find what they are looking for. “If they’re having drinks at 6 p.m. on a Thursday, it means they don’t work in the real side of finance,” he said. “They either work in sales, or they’re not getting any deals.”
This banker was desperate to move into private equity, or out of finance, because the hours were unsustainable. “It takes a certain kind of person to want to stay in banking, and I’m not sure that’s the kind of man they would want to date.” 
“At my boss’ level, they make a shitload of money. But they all take loads of [the amphetamine] adderall and work till three in the morning most nights. I think these girls would be better off with a guy in recruitment in an expensive suit.” 
Despite a gender imbalance at Broadgate Circle — described as a “sausage fest” by one estate agent who said he did not wish to speak to journalists — meaning the odds are in any woman’s favor, a banker bro may be hard to find. 
The three private bankers from UBS also noted finding a true financier at a social hour would be tough: “We come here for drinks because our office is right above Broadgate Circle. But most of the guys here are just trying to give off the air they work in finance,” one said.
It is often easy to spot a banker because of their attire: “We don’t even wear gilets,” one of them joked, pointing to a friend who was, unsurprisingly, in a gilet. “It’s August, mate,” he said to his friend. 
Most of the men in Broadgate Circle were wearing “a blue suit with brown shoes, they have gelled hair and an uncomfortably tight suit. And obviously, they work in recruitment. A few estate agents too,” the UBS banker added.
For the women on the hunt, that may not be a bad thing. “I don’t want a workaholic,” Dunn said.