BAML says interns can go home early after death
INTERNS at Bank of America Merrill Lynch are to be given the option to finish their summer placements early following the death of 21-year-old student Moritz Erhardt last week.
A spokesman said “we are providing full support to our interns”, who are due to complete their postings next week, while BAML conducts its own enquiries into the tragedy.
Erhardt was pronounced dead at his student accommodation last Thursday. The high-flying student had previously completed internships at KPMG, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, and had planned to return to university in Germany after the summer.
The incident has sparked a debate on the hours expected of investment bank staff, after reports that Erhardt was pulling all-nighters before his death.
“Being an intern doesn’t mean you work any less hard than the full-timers,” a former BAML intern who stayed at Claredale House in 2011 told City A.M., adding that interns often worked through the night. “If no bank subjected their juniors to that sort of thing, then none of them would need to. But the fact that the entire industry does it means that a more lenient bank would start to struggle.”