UK
Sector: Risk Management
GUEST COMMENT: What makes a good risk manager?
The credit crunch has exposed extremes of good and bad risk management, and risk professionals are in the spotlight. Those who have coped most successfully with the market upheaval have certain abilities and strengths – what are they? A synthesis of technical and analytical expertise with communication skills: Risk people who have both spotted the [...]
Will actuaries take the contractor route for more cash?
With all the furore around investment bankers, no one seems to be paying much attention to the fate of the humble actuary. Six months ago, firms were falling over themselves to hire from a limited talent pool. Now, with permanent headcount sign-off harder to come by, companies are instead trying to lure them into the [...]
Traders not wanted at the FSA
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is hiring 218 people for its supervisory team but, according to the Financial Times, it has little interest in hearing from ex-traders. Instead, what it wants are risk managers, product controllers and compliance officers. On behalf of disenfranchised traders everywhere, we thought it right to investigate why the FSA is [...]
Ex-front office types not welcome in the back or middle office
Like hard-up housewives forced to downgrade from Waitrose to Lidl, a few very desperate ex-front office bankers are allegedly thinking the unthinkable and contemplating jobs in the back and middle office. They are not being well received. The problem appears to be that back and middle-office hiring is just as depressed as the rest of [...]
Risk managers reckon on bonuses
Not unlike most other people working in investment banks, it seems risk professionals still expect to receive a bonus this year. A survey of risk management professionals in investment banks by risk recruiters GRS Group suggests 67% of them still expect to get something in the way of a bonus. And 43% of them expect [...]
Have risk bonuses been ring fenced?
The rumour doing the rounds in risk circles is apparently that risk bonuses are going to be spared the ravages of the market. “Risk has been ring fenced,” says David Butter, of risk recruitment firm GRS Consulting. “Most people expect bonuses to be slightly down, but not nearly to the extent of other areas. Some [...]
Killer interview question: “What went wrong?”
Given the events of the past weeks and months, any self-respecting risk professional, trader or banking cleaner can now expect to be assailed by the same nasty question at interview: “What went wrong?” At least, this is what recruitment firm Robert Walters says in its latest market update. Paula Maidens, a director of financial services [...]
How easy is it to get into the FSA?
Way, way back in March, stung by criticism of its handling of Northern Rock, the FSA declared its intention to up its intake of former bankers, including quant types to work on its frontline supervision teams, focusing “on the complex models used by banks to gauge financial risk” (FT). Its timing was impeccable. With thousands [...]
Shock news: everyone was on holiday in August
Morgan McKinley, the bastion of middle and back (plus some front) office recruitment in the City, released its latest monthly employment monitor today. The results are either depressing or gently heart warming, depending upon your state of mind. The depressing news is that job vacancies were down a chilling 32% in August 2008 versus August [...]
Who’ll still be here in 2010?
Dresdner Kleinwort bankers may be quaking in their Church’s, but some people can still count on a relatively secure future. And they are… Finance and risk professionals While everyone was on the beach last month, Financial Services Authority chief exec Hector Sants called for banks not to slash too many middle and back office staff [...]
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