eFinancialCareers

Trading and other leverage-dependent activities will be most affected by the bulge brackets' move to take refuge under the umbrella of bank regulators. Boutique investment banks may gain ground - and talent. Converting Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into regulated bank holding companies effectively unites U.S. finance into a single sector. Headhunter Richard Lipstein, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search, says additional oversight and regulation will have the biggest career... Read more

Wide-ranging re-regulation of investment banks' activities will reduce leverage, profitability and compensation, says Alan Johnson, an influential Wall Street compensation consultant. The coming changes will profoundly affect hedge funds and buyout firms as well, Johnson, managing director at New York-based Johnson Associates, told eFinancialCareers News. All activities that depend on financial leverage, whether buy-side or sell-side, are likely to be scaled back. "Going forward, I think people will be paid less... Read more

The move by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become regulated bank holding companies effectively unites U.S. finance into a single sector. "This fundamentally alters the landscape," a Goldman Sachs spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. "By becoming a bank holding company and being regulated by the Federal Reserve, we have directly addressed issues that have become of mounting concern to market participants in recent weeks." Along with investment banks, Wall... Read more

Inducing recruiters to pay attention to you is a lot like borrowing money. If you don't ask until you desperately need it, then you're sure to be rejected. So if your current job isn't on the chopping block yet but might get axed next year, now is the time to reach out to people who can open a door to new opportunities. A recent Forbes article offers several tips for attaining... Read more

Barclays Capital promised to pay the full accrued bonus amounts and maintain current terms of employment – including severance in case of dismissal – for some 10,000 U.S. employees of Lehman Brothers, if Barclays' proposed purchase of Lehman's U.S. investment bank takes place. Citing documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, Financial News reports that Barclays agreed to pay 100 percent of the accrued bonus pool for transferred... Read more

While hiring is slow among Chicago's financial firms, a number of sell-side equity analyst positions have opened up recently. "These are replacement searches," says Edward Storm of Comprehensive Recruiting, a Phoenix -based executive search firm that focuses on various sectors of the global financial markets. Top-tier firms are terminating analysts who have had poor performance and are replacing them with established, senior equity analysts, he observes. Some of these candidates are being... Read more

Another platoon of the newly jobless is set to flood Wall Street in the wake of Lehman's Chaper 11 filing and Merrill's acquisition by Bank of America. Monday's bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings and the surprise deal for Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch will each trigger mass layoffs, Wall Street headhunters say. Although it's too soon to estimate how many jobs will be lost in the restructuring of... Read more

Some 10,000 Lehman Brothers employees in investment banking and capital markets businesses got a reprieve when Barclays agreed to buy the insolvent parent company's core assets within North America. UK-based Barclays said Wednesday it agreed to acquire Lehman's North American investment banking and fixed income and equities sales, trading and research operations, along with Lehman's New York headquarters building and two New Jersey data centers. According to Lehman, the definitive agreement... Read more

If you're a financial services professional hoping to land a job in a bulge-bracket institution, your prospects just nosedived. And if you've been aiming for a slot in a hedge fund or in one of the many boutique banks that are still hiring, get ready for a flood of new competition. Monday's bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings and the surprise deal for Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch will... Read more

Even in today’s shrinking economy, some career coaches say liberal arts degrees can still pave the way to a successful career in financial services. Former Merrill Lynch campus recruiting head Connie Thanasoulis told the New York Daily News that the skills obtained in English literature and other arts degrees can be an ideal training ground for finance and management. She points to a job like a research analyst, heavy on writing,... Read more

Lehman Brothers ousted its international banking and global fixed-income division chiefs, and announced a $3.9 billion quarterly loss and another mass layoff. Merrill Lynch, RBS Greenwich Capital and Wachovia joined the lengthening list of institutions hiring recent Bear Stearns alumni for senior roles. JPMorgan ceased dealing in municipal interest-rate swaps. Lehman Brothers replaced the heads of its international and fixed-income businesses, as the firm struggles to raise capital and announced... Read more

Lehman Brothers replaced the heads of its international and fixed-income businesses, as the firm struggles to raise capital and is expected to announce next week a quarterly loss and its fourth mass layoff of 2008. The latest appointments "are likely to trigger further management changes," according to the Financial Times. Lehman named Riccardo Banchetti and Christian Meissner as co-chief executives of Europe and the Middle East. They replace Jeremy M. Isaacs, who... Read more