Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital are doing a very good job of affirming the warm and fuzzy sensation that hiring might be starting all over again. Deutsche Bank has been hiring lots of senior M&A bankers in the US, supplemented by a very senior debt banker in Europe. And BarCap has been hiring all manner of people, including two of the UK’s most, most senior M&A bankers.

Sadly, this may not be reason enough to get fuzzed up: hiring appears to be focused on senior positions and recruiters say there’s still lots of interviewing and not very much at all in the way of action.

Lots of Lehman bankers have left BarCap in the US. (TheDeal)

Morgan Stanley hires Alex Erlich for prime brokerage. (Financial Times)

Investec cuts bonuses. (Bloomberg)

Merrill’s uncertain future in Asia. (Reuters)

The scrum is only just beginning, but banks could be fighting over a much smaller group of customers. (Breakingviews)

Alistair Darling has been captured by the banks. (Naked Capitalism)

Five winners from the credit crunch. (Naked Capitalism)

UK government won’t be releasing stress test results in the interest of stability. (Bloomberg)

1m more people will lose their jobs in the UK. (BBC)

Playboy Enterprises on sale for $300m. (BBC)