eFinancialCareers

New York Governor David Paterson estimated that Wall Street bonuses will shrink 20 percent this year, severely denting the state's financial outlook. The 20 percent figure is within the range of estimates released earlier in 2008 by private-sector forecasters such as Johnson Associates. Despite the housing slowdown last year, Wall Street professionals raked in $33.2 billion in bonuses for 2007 - only slightly below 2006's $33.9 billion, according to the... Read more

In the current market environment, like any other, the decision to leave a company isn’t always yours to make. But what if it is? For many senior level employees at global firms, the choice between leaving a sinking ship or sticking it out for the long haul presents many challenges. First, it’s important to consider whether you are up for the task of starting anew and assimilating into a new... Read more

Freddie Mac Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron received nearly $20 million in compensation last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing comes a week after the government proposed legislation that would make possible a federal bailout of Freddie and Fannie Mae amid liquidity concerns and plunging stock prices. Combined, the two largest government-sponsored mortgage institutions own or guarantee $5.2 trillion of U.S. home... Read more

Fund management firm American Century adds a five-year lookback period to bonus formulas. Global banking group's report calls for tying pay to risks taken. Financial firms pull back IT outsourcing amid slower spending growth. *** American Century Investments will restructure its bonus system for portfolio managers by adding a five-year performance component and comparing their returns with a benchmark instead of a peer group, according to Fund Action newsletter. The move will... Read more

The market for investment consulting jobs in Chicago is strong, with the institutional market holding steady and jobs for consultants who can serve individual clients growing rapidly in both retail and boutique firms. "The job market for investment consultants has been increasing," says Erin Polczynski, division director in the Chicago office of Robert Half International, an executive search firm specializing in financial services. "We have a quite a few positions for... Read more

The Institute of International Finance is recommending Wall Street' securities firms make their pay practices more transparent and tie compensation more to market risk. Earlier this year the group was reported to be drawing up a wide-ranging recommendation to revamp, among other things, the way bonuses are awarded. Its 200-page report claims to establish "best practices" for banking industry compensation. By aligning pay with risk-adjusted performance and adopting the report's... Read more

The financial sector may be rethinking the idea of IT outsourcing as a long-term strategy. Computer Economics, a research firm based in Irvine, Calif., believes the financial industry is pulling back on outsourcing projects and bringing many IT operations in-house. The firm conducts an annual survey that benchmarks IT operations trends, staffing trends and salary trends in a variety of industries. "This is peculiar to the financial sector," says John Longwell, the... Read more

You're a private-client relationship manager responsible for $300 million in assets, but your employer is trimming both bonus allocations and back-office resources that support your activities. What are your choices? If you work for a large institution that's retrenching amid the credit crunch, jumping to a private-wealth boutique could be a viable option. Or, a mid-career private wealth manager whose current business is stagnating might think about relocating to a high-growth... Read more

American Century Investments will restructure its bonus system for portfolio managers. The move will reward the firm's best performers with stock options and tie incentives to long-term performance. The newsletter Fund Action reports the firm is adding a five-year performance component and will measure performance based on a benchmark rather than a peer group, as it currently does. The plan represents one method in which the mutual fund manager is exploring... Read more

Newly launched hedge funds raised 40 percent more capital through June, but the number of launches fell 50 percent from 2007. London-based i-bank Collins Stewart is adding staff in New York. Compliance hiring upturn bypasses Chicago. *** Only half as many new hedge funds began trading in the first six months of 2008 as in the same period last year, with the largest launches grabbing a bigger share of new capital raised.... Read more

Goldman Sachs recently opened a hedge fund administration office in Toronto, Ontario's provincial government announced early this month. The number of jobs was not disclosed either in the announcement or media coverage of it. "Goldman Sachs has opened its newest Goldman Sachs Administration Services (GSAS) office in Toronto with Fund Accounting and Investor Servicing areas of its hedge fund administration operations," said the statement from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development... Read more

Talk is heating up that State Street Corp. is planning to move some of its workforce to the Boston suburbs. The Boston Business Journal reports the giant custodial bank is considering occupying as much as 800,000 square feet of office space outside the city, and may build a suburban campus. Among the possible locations is Westwood Station, a $1.5 billion development being constructed in Westwood that will include retail space, three... Read more

While compliance jobs at all levels abound in New York, San Francisco and other parts of the U.S., in Chicago the market remains sluggish. "Some (financial) firms are adding on the compliance side, but things are moving slower in Chicago," says Stuart Rosenthal of Legend Global Search, a New York-based recruiting firm which specializes in compliance and legal placement. Rosenthal, who does considerable business in Chicago, adds, "A lot of searches... Read more

Employees at Washington Mutual, a key consumer and mortgage lender, face the prospect of more layoffs later this year. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Debora Horvath, the bank's executive vice president and chief information officer, told employees in a conference call that Washington Mutual could announce more layoffs in order to shed costs. Details were not provided, but the internal announcement underscores the bank’s losses on bad mortgages and other... Read more

Only half as many new hedge funds began trading in the first six months of 2008 as in the same period last year, with the largest launches grabbing a bigger share of new capital raised. While fewer new fund launches may sound bearish for employment prospects in the sector, the immediate effect is likely only marginal, because hedge funds - especially new ones - tend to run very lean in headcount.... Read more

GLG Partners said it hired two Morgan Stanley veterans to shore up the group running its emerging markets hedge funds ahead of the pending departure of emerging markets chief Greg Coffey. Bart Turtelboom and Karim Abdel-Motaal will together manage London-based GLG's Emerging Markets Fund, Emerging Currency and Fixed Income Fund and Emerging Equity Fund. Turtleboom and Abdel-Motaal led Morgan Stanley's fixed-income emerging markets team. Coffey reportedly will leave GLG in October... Read more

While the credit crisis has produced a steady stream of layoffs as write-offs force Wall Street to prune headcount, a London-based bank is adding U.S.-based security analysts and bankers. Collins Stewart is using the weak dollar and cutbacks at rival firms to beef up its New York team, reports Crain's New York Business. Over the last 12 months it's made as many as 60 hires in New York – but... Read more

Globalization of operations, products and services means multinational financial services firms must redefine the nature of their diversity programs. But morphing inclusion policies present benefits and challenges to both companies and local employees. Globalization has changed the dynamic for firms looking to employ an old definition of diversity, notes Gerard M. Lupacchino, senior vice president for product development at Novations Group, a Boston-based provider of consulting and training services. In a... Read more

Job prospects at credit-focused funds got a little bleaker after SAC Capital announced plans to shuffle its Sigma Capital Management LLC unit. Bloomberg reports SAC Capital will close the fixed-income business at Sigma Capital. The $16 billion, Greenwich, Conn., fund company will eliminate eight jobs and reallocate some of its fixed income assets to equities. The cuts were made on June 30. Primarily an equity shop, SAC recently has scaled back... Read more

The flow of people and capital into the distressed debt investing sector continues to swell, as both banks and hedge fund managers target bargains among the wreckage left by the credit crunch and a possible recession. Anchorage Advisors LLC, a $7 billion hedge fund firm focused on credit and special situations, said last week it's hired Daniel Allen from Morgan Stanley. Allen, who was co-head of North American credit trading for... Read more