( CNN ) -- Banks are being scrutinized over the extreme working hours put in by interns following the sudden death of a 21-year-old undergraduate at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch . Moritz Erhardt collapsed and died in rented accommodation in east London last week , the bank confirmed . According to city workers on the internet forum Wall Street Oasis , he had worked until 6 a.m. for three days in a row . While no direct link has been made , the death of the German business student has put the spotlight on grueling hours suffered by interns looking to impress bosses and competing with each other . Internships such as Erhardt 's pay around Â£45,000 ( $ 70,500 ) a year , pro rata , and jostling comes as youth unemployment in Europe soars to record levels , hitting 23 % in 2012 . A BAML spokesman said the bank was `` shocked and saddened '' by the news . The spokesman declined to comment on unconfirmed reports Erhardt had epilepsy . Cass Business School professor Andre Spicer told CNN interns are expected to work long hours to show their commitment to prospective employers , rather than being productive . `` The real reasons are cultural . All-nighters are seen as a rite of passage , '' Spicer said . `` They show an intern is willing to push themselves beyond any reasonable limits at work ... if large firms hope to be sustainable and attractive to employees , they need to tackle the extreme hours culture , '' he said . According to the bank , all BAML interns are assigned a `` buddy , '' and some get a staffing officer whose job it is to allocate work across the group to make sure it 's manageable . Katerina Rudiger , head of skills and policy campaign at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development , told CNN employers try to make internships a positive experience for young people . Balance must be kept , she said , to ensure interns were not overburdened . She said : `` Young people really struggle with market access and they can be quite desperate ... to get their foot on the job ladder and are willing to do whatever it takes . In some cases that can be too much . '' Rudiger added : `` Another issue is that a lot of young people have not experienced a work place before so they do n't know the rules and what is expected of them . They do n't challenge their employers . '' Erhardt was in the sixth week of a seven week internship when he died . Bank of America 's interns have since been told they can leave the program early without negatively affecting chances of future employment . Dillon Khan , author of the The Intern , told CNN increased media scrutiny on internships , particularly in the UK , is forcing companies to be more careful when employing young people . He said : `` It 's the type of news story that will catch fire very quickly , if a reputable organization is not doing its duty with interns . Organizations are very conscious of these things because they do n't want a bad reputation . '' Erhardt -- who had completed internships with a number of other banks -- was staying in a ground-floor flat at Claredale House , a four-storey building known as `` Banker 's block '' due to its reputation for housing interns in the summer months . The BAML spokesman said of Erhardt : `` He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly-diligent intern at our company with a promising future . Our first thoughts are with his family and we send our condolences to them at this difficult time . '' Additional reporting by Mark Thompson , CNNMoney .
Banking intern Moritz Erhardt collapsed and died in his short-term residence in east London . The death of the German business student has called into question the grueling hours worked by interns . A chat room thread said he had worked three nights until 6 a.m. In a statement to Mashable, an Uber spokesperson said: "We are aware that one of our drivers was involved in an accident on Friday night at around 11 p.m. local time.