Editor’s pick

David Charters

DAVID CHARTERS: Stephen Hester deserves to be knighted

I don’t know about you, but to me there’s a nice ring to Mister Fred Goodwin.  If that sounds petty, I should explain that I used to have a lot of friends at RBS. Now I only have a few.  Most of the others have landed (eventually) elsewhere. The issue of stripping bankers – or [...]

Anicet Tanghe

GUEST COMMENT: Why you might want to consider working in a family office

So you want to escape the grind of the corporate world and join the niche environment of the family office? Be aware, that you will have plenty of competition. Family offices are typically small entities built and developed by business entrepreneurs looking for key players that can bring their broad knowledge and expertise. For UHNW [...]

Barclays

Is BarCap the only big bank doing any real hiring?

Tomorrow is results day at Barclays Capital. As we considered a few weeks’ ago, Barcap might need to make a few redundancies. Like RBS, it’s massively increased its headcount in recent years. Unlike RBS, it has not announced a programme to alleviate itself of several thousand staff. But despite various other people also thinking that [...]

Ken Livingstone contemplates bonuses

Late Lunchtime Links: Senior bankers are being dumped to make way for cheap juniors; the horror of telling your pregnant wife about your redundancy

It’s not looking good if you are an expensive senior banker, especially if you’re an expensive senior banker in fixed income. As we noted earlier, Credit Suisse has been targeting its senior staff in its job cuts. Eric Varvel chief executive of the investment bank, elaborated a little during this morning’s call: “We let go [...]

©istockphoto/matt_benoit

Is it really appropriate to claim you are the most unflaggingly hard worker in the world in your application to an investment bank?

US website Business Insider has availed itself of a covering letter sent by a student at New York University to JPMorgan. The letter is part of the student’s effort to gain a place on JPMorgan’s summer intern programme. We have reproduced it for your delectation below. Notable errors: –   Referring to Morgan Stanley whilst [...]

Brady Dougan

Carnage at Credit Suisse: bonuses (seemingly) down 50%, with more paid in cash. Yet there may still be hiring

Credit Suisse’s investment bank does not appear to be in a healthy state. In the fourth quarter of 2012, it had a cost income ratio of 202%; for full year 2012, the cost income ratio was 98.6%. Something seems to be up. The fourth quarter horrors can be partially attributed to one off events: “Net [...]

Bank of America tower to which you may not be going

Actually, Bank of America Merrill Lynch IS sending its graduates to New York for training this year

We were wrong. Yesterday, we suggested – as per an article on Dealbreaker, that BAML was having second thoughts about training its EMEA summer analysts in New York this year. Apparently, they were to be trained in London instead, in order to save money. We have now heard back from BAML and they assure us that people [...]

besighyawn

GUEST COMMENT: At times like these, you need to hit on the people you went to university with

One of the major ways to differentiate between those who do well in the City and those who don’t is the strength of one’s university alumni network. Some networks are very good – hosting regular drinks, which people make time to go to no matter how busy they are. They also foster the idea during [...]

Archetypal quant

This is what you can earn as a quant in London, New York, Paris, Singapore or Hong Kong

We have some figures for quant salaries from recruitment firm Selby Jennings. They hark back from November, but we are assured they remain correct. They are presented below, without comment.  

©istockphoto/Neustockimages

Late Lunchtime Links: It’s ok – Deutsche is paying £167k cash bonuses; was Hester talking about Antonio Polverino’s alleged £7m package this morning?

Deutsche Bank’s cash cap is not nearly as bad as we’d feared. Following ominous rumours that the German bank was contemplating capping cash bonuses at just £41k, Bloomberg reports that Deutsche’s cap is actually €200k, or £167k. If so, it leaves Deutsche’s cap in-line with the £172k cash limit originally mooted by Credit Suisse and [...]

The olden days, when bonuses were not deferred and gratification was immediate

UBS is paying select senior staff an extra £80k a year in an attempt to retain them; if you want an instant bonus try a Russian bank (but not VTB)

Things are still bad at UBS, but they are less bad than they seemed yesterday. The Financial Times notes that the Swiss bank is making some special payments to discourage special people from leaving. Mentioned on slide 24 of its analyst presentation, these payments will be comprised of stock awards currently totaling CFH300m (£207m) and [...]