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Goldman Sachs’ business model is in a state of transformational change. This is what you need to know
When analysts at Bernstein Research put out a note on Goldman Sachs’ business model after Goldman Sachs’ first quarter results, they said the firm was “modifying” itself but was afraid to say so publicly for fear of upsetting some of its most powerful employees. Goldman’s “partnership culture – whose shared values and cultural traditions have [...]
Q&A: Mike Connarty, director of international investments at Standard Life, advocates learning Mandarin if you want to get ahead
Mike Connarty is based in Edinburgh but he’s an international figure in financial services. As director of international investments, Mike manages Standard Life’s fast-growing joint venture investments in India and China. If you want to work for him, you’ll need a genuinely international outlook – and ideally the capacity to speak Mandarin. Q: How long [...]
Want to work for a successful FICC sales and trading business that’s taking more risk? Try SocGen. Also: an update on French banks’ voluntary redundancy programmes
Forget Morgan Stanley and its 34% year-on-year increase in fixed income trading revenues. Forget Goldman Sachs and its mitigating factors. Forget JPMorgan. If you want to work for a bank that’s outperformed the rest in fixed income so far in 2012 AND is willing to take risk where appropriate, think: SocGen. SocGen’s first quarter results [...]
Handelsbanken is spending more on its investment banking staff, but bonuses are still being cut back
For a bank that prides itself on conservatism, Handelsbanken is displaying some adventurous characteristics. Firstly, there’s its UK expansion – it intends to add a new branch there every eight days after strong revenue growth. Then there’s its capital markets business, where cost income ratios are starting to look worryingly high. Revenues within Handelsbanken’s capital markets [...]
GUEST COMMENT: The hell that is working in an investment bank’s presentation centre
Junior bankers do more than their fair share of grunt work, but there are some tasks that are beyond even them: nicely formatting complex PowerPoint presentations, following all the company guidelines for a consistent ‘brand look’, creating spiffy graphs, working with high-end illustrations, and giving everything a makeover. This is what the presentations centre at [...]
First quarter pay hierarchy suggests American banks still pay more. Generally, they also pay a LOT more cash
Now that we know how much JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche have accrued for their investment bankers in the first quarter, we can say two things. 1. American banks pay more (with the exception of Deutsche, whose pay per head figures for the corporate and investment bank aren’t comparable because, unlike elsewhere, [...]
UBS M&A bankers should be afraid: today’s results give Andrea Orcel a licence to clean them out
It’s UBS Q1 results day. Amidst the high own-debt charge, the falling compensation, the falling headcount, the ok performances in FICC (except in rates) and equities, one thing stands out: M&A has done very badly. UBS even admits as much. “Advisory revenues decreased 33% to CHF 169 million from CHF 254 million, as our market [...]
GUEST COMMENT: As a junior corporate financier I am spending my life tweaking PowerPoint presentations
Many young undergraduates harbour dreams of becoming an investment banker when they finish university, but few know what the job entails. Those who know the reality have probably done an internship in the sector, be it in ECM, DCM or M&A. Some of these people have continued to bite the bullet and become full-fledged analysts, [...]
A quick and easy way of knowing whether you will lose your job in Bank of America’s coming 2,000 redundancies
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Bank of America will be making another 2,000 redundancies soon in its investment banking, commercial banking and non-US wealth-management units. Given that Bank of America has been highlighting forthcoming redundancies as part of ‘Project New Bac phase two’ for some time, this doesn’t seem big news. Except [...]
GUEST COMMENT: The 8 main reasons why people become investment bankers
There are different reasons why individuals become investment bankers. Chance plays a role, but deep-seated motivations are usually the determining factor. These motivations explain why so many bankers agree to work unusually long hours, put up with abnormally high levels of stress and sacrifice personal and leisure time. Take a look at the faces of [...]
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