eFinancialCareers

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 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

In the wake of IndyMac's collapse, fears abound that Charlotte's big banks could be next. Plummeting stock prices at both Bank of America and Wachovia are causing concern in the banking-centric city about possible failures at these banking giants, and the certain layoffs that would follow. Last month, B of A announced it was cutting 7,500 jobs as part of its acquisition of Countrywide and absorption of more than 50,000... 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

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

Goldman Sachs partner will replace GLG's emerging markets chief. More funds hire high-level distressed debt traders. A report says B of A may use lowball job offers to deny Countrywide staffers severance. Lehman will award mid-year stock bonuses. *** London-based hedge fund GLG Partners tapped Goldman Sachs Partner Driss Ben-Brahim to replace Greg Coffey, its chief emerging markets manager, who will leave in October. Coffey plans to launch his own hedge fund.... Read more

Employees of Countrywide Financial may soon be on the receiving end of "take-it-or-leave-it" discussions on new roles as Bank of America begins to absorb the troubled mortgage company. The New York Post says B of A will begin discussing employees' new responsibilities this week, and many senior employees believe they'll be offered "inferior positions with big pay cuts." The idea, the newspaper says, is to "force them to quit and therefore... Read more

Lehman Brothers will award mid-year stock bonuses to its 26,000 employees. The Wall Street Journal describes the award as "essentially a down payment for 2008 compensation." The remainder of the year's compensation will be paid as cash and stock in January, the newspaper reports. The move was seen as an attempt to reward employees while the company faces tough times, and to take advantage of its stock price, which is now... Read more

Wall Street's job cuts to date have only scratched the surface of what would be needed to match historical benchmarks, such as revenue per employee. According to an analysis by financial sector research boutique Portales Partners, to restore profitability banks would have to slash headcounts by 20 percent if revenue reverts to 2004 levels. The research firm compared the growth in annualized revenue (adjusted for mergers and recent write-downs) and... Read more

Corporate development roles draw some dealmakers from Wall Street. Citi's Pandit overhauling bonus structure to boost cooperation among divisions. *** With strategic acquisitions a relative bright spot within today's lean mergers and acquisitions landscape, some laid-off investment bankers are landing as in-house dealmakers with their former corporate clients, observes theDeal.com. Research analysts are eyeing the corporate development arena, too. Still, even giant corporations' in-house deal teams are tiny compared with a... Read more

Citigroup reportedly is reshaping its bonus system to emphasize divisional cooperation and overall corporate performance. "We have to put a premium on partnership-like behaviour," an unnamed Citi executive told the Financial Times. The FT describes the change as a key plank in Chief Executive Vikram Pandit's strategy to revitalize the "universal banking" model by fostering synergies among investment banking, commercial banking and wealth management. Pandit reportedly asked Citi's HR chief to... Read more

Bank of America said its absorption of Countrywide will eliminate 7,500 jobs over two years. The figure reportedly amounts to 12.5 percent of the combined work force. The purchase is slated to close July 1, after Countrywide shareholders signed off on it Wednesday. "Most of the reductions will occur in instances where the two companies have significant overlap such as staff support," the bank said. "Bank of America will continue to monitor... Read more

We all know about information overload. It's been around for at least 40 years, but the Internet has raised it to new levels. As a job candidate, you're forced to confront it from at least two angles. As a user of information, you have the Herculean task of filtering an ocean of job postings and Web sites to find the few nuggets that might bring you closer to your goal of... Read more