UK
It’s tempting to conclude that the back office is being unfairly targeted for redundancy.
Most of the latest 1,800 cuts revealed at Morgan Stanley will come from support functions, Citigroup plans to trim its operations, Bank of America/Merrill is set to scale-back admin teams and Lazard’s intention to reduce staff by 10% will mainly affect the back office. And 2,300 staff affected by RBS’s latest round of cuts are unlikely to come from the front office.
If you’re back office victim, there are still some opportunities to get back in again.
Andrew Hanson, head of investment banking operations, Robert Walters, admits there was a “significant” slowdown in the number of roles on the market towards the end of last year, but says things have picked up slightly in recent weeks – in some areas at least.
“We’re seeing some roles within the equities space and good demand for candidates with experience in commodity operations – be that settlements, trade support or documentation,” he says. “What’s more, we have a decent volume of roles within corporate actions, stock lending and project management across all asset classes.”
Similarly, Emily Ayre, manager of the asset management and investment banking operations division at Morgan McKinley, points to “pockets of hiring” within areas like asset servicing, collateral management and trade support.
However, with an over-supply of candidates, and the demand coming from niche sectors, investment banks are not surprisingly becoming more rigid about who they take on.
“Candidates are advised to be flexible and realistic,” says Ayre. “This applies to the type of organisation they want to work for as well as their salary expectations. Widening their choice to include several types of financial institutions, not just the top-tier investment banks, means they can hopefully increase their options.”
Does anyone know anything about trade support function / operations roles for vanilla and exotic credit derivatives? Volumes are lower but some firms appear to be selectively hiring still. Are we expecting volumes to increase somewhat over the coming months?
no but they probably expect defaults to increase markedly !
My question is with the large number of redundancies across the board, how are people going to survive? Maybe home based business where you spend more time with the family is a positive temporary solution. I suffered huge financial losses because of the econmic market downturn in commodities and this is a great alternative in one of the industries which seems to be recession proof. Definately worth a serious look. This will help me pay the kids school fees and also spend more time with the family. This is how I am going to survive the credit crunch!
I HAVE SEEN A number of back office people with no qualifications earning 80K and with a bonus on top. They ought to be sacked and replaced by people with degrees and qualifications
Message to ALAn,
You may have a degree and be well educated but please learn how to spell your name, i too am one of the uneducated with no qualifications but i earn in excess of 90k without bonus so why whould i need a degree or qualification to be unemployed earning nothing. sometimes the best degree you can have is the degree of life also worth a mention is the reason the economy is in such a shambles is becasue of people who are over educated and complicate simple business basics.
You are either qualified or you are not. Having at least a relevant degree helps and that is proven. I think the point it that if you don’t have any qualifications behind you and your banks sacks you, then you are really in for a struggle to get another role in this environment.
James, I agree however the comment made by ALAn, about sacking people in the back office just because they dont have a degree is pathetic, the reason most companies survive is the back office working harder and taking on more responsibilty and generally cleaning the crap left behind from sales, and staying loyal to the cause, and not gung ho grads who thnk they can make millions with little or no knowledge
laughable , the amount of grads i’ve met with first class degrees who don’t know there ass from there elbow in the real world.. A degree does not make a good worker or innovator, just means someone who can sit in lectures and regurgitate what was learned..
You learn to drive for your test , then you learn to drive properly by driving….