Anjool Malde, who worked for Deutsche Bank, leapt from the top floor of eight-storey Coq d'Argent restaurant near the Bank of England on Sunday, just days before his 25th birthday.

According to a report in The Daily Mail, bosses had told him on Friday to leave his work early following "an inquiry into an IT matter."

A close friend, who saw Malde, an Oxford graduate, at the weekend before he killed himself, said he was "obviously upset" but would not go into detail about the nature of the problems he was having with his employer.

"All of us have heard he was about to be suspended."

A spokesman at Deutsche Bank confirmed that Malde had been asked to leave work at 3pm on Friday, but declined to give further details. Malde's parents Naina and Bharat are "deeply shocked" by the death of their only son.

Malde, popularly known as Jools, was said to be a big Michael Jackson fan and was upset by the star's death. He wrote on the Twitter site: "Anjool has cried twice this decade. Yesterday and today over someone he never even met (though has listened to every day for 15 years).

However, his website gave no indication of any personal crisis, listing his work status as "living the dream".

On his website, Malde claimed to have started "a number of online businesses" and had been co-editor of a business self-help book, Racing Towards Excellence, which was published last month by Leveraged Publishing.

He includes a long list of business skills, including "design, editing, entrepreneurship, event planning, graphic design, investment, leadership, management, marketing, public speaking, web design, writing".

Graduating at just 20 with a geography degree, he seemed destined to rival the success of other top British-Asian entrepreneurs.

During his days in Oxford, Malde worked as a music and arts reviewer for the BBC. He also worked on the editorial team of Oxford's two newspapers and presented the news on student radio.

Malde was second in the UK Graduate of the Year awards. An ambitious self-publicist, he had held over 20 positions of responsibility in various societies and made sure he was photographed with Geri Halliwell when he interviewed the former Spice Girl for BBC Radio Oxford.

Interviewed on the BBC website while still studying at St Peter's College, Malde said he had already paid off his student loan and was proud to have become independent from his parents.