eFinancialCareers

Sovereign wealth funds' investments in international markets have so far yielded some big losses, but this hasn’t dented their appetite for overseas investments or, it seems, for recruiting international expertise. Dubai International Capital recently made two senior hires (after sacking seven of its investment staff), and Abu-Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC) also took on two senior staff, including former Fidelity chief financial officer, Chris Coombes. ADIC tells us it’s in expansion... Read more

Financial News has produced its annual list of the top 100 women in finance and, as usual, it contains a disproportionately high number of women working in asset management. While fund management is home to power women like Katherine Garrett-Cox and Helena Morrissey, sectors like hedge funds and private banking are relatively bereft of female role models. Surprisingly perhaps, private equity ranks second as a location for... Read more

For a long time, the buyside was relatively immune to the tribulations of the banking sector. As of last week, that’s categorically not the case. With more than $25 trillion wiped off global equities in 2008, fund management fees are diminishing along with their assets under management. UK fund managers are likely to be particularly impacted by the equities rout – according to Mercer, around 60% of their assets are... Read more

A surge in quantitative investing from the buy-side is driving an increase in technology spend for the sector and moving quant analysts’ roles into the front office. Hedge funds and asset managers are increasingly turning to the quant approach in the face of unprecedented volatility in financial markets. This is fuelling appetite for new algorithms and the technology that can assist in the selection and creation of portfolios, according to... Read more

Bramdean Asset Management, the boutique fund manager founded by Nicola Horlick – she of City superwoman status – is looking for two researchers, but they’re unlikely to be run of the mill candidates. At a reception last night, organised by the CFA Society of the UK, Horlick said the last addition to her five-strong research team was a former concert violinist from Goa with an ‘amazing brain’. Horlick mentored... Read more

Want to get ahead in fund management? Last night, Nicola Horlick shared the secrets of her success with assorted fund managers and analysts at a bash organised by the CFA Society of the UK. Here’s what she said, in distilled form: Be assertive: As a trainee at SG Warburg, Horlick was asked to rotate around four different divisions. She wanted to stay in asset management and refused. SG insisted; she... Read more

New entrants looking to break into the ultra-competitive fund management industry have a significant obstacle in their path: the notoriously difficult Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) programme. The professional qualification comes in three parts, takes four years to complete, and 80% of candidates fall before the final hurdle. Moreover, as more people take the exams, CFA insiders say the pass rate is bound to fall. A total of 119,000 candidates... Read more

Just when investment banks are feeling the pinch, it seems asset managers are increasingly keen on poaching their accountancy staff. Recruiters say it helps that asset managers have several things in their favour – including salaries that are now more on a par with banking and a ‘fun’ environment. “Over the last year, basic salaries have risen for finance roles within asset management to bring them more in line with those... Read more

Early indications that fund managers were merrily hiring are being replaced by intimations that they’re merrily firing – although not quite as merrily as investment banks. Fidelity has cut staff. So have Aberdeen Asset Management, Credit Suisse and – so we hear – UBS. And the head of HR at the asset management arm of one US bank says there’s not much hiring going on at all. What went wrong?... Read more

There were lots more redundancies last week. Everyone from managing directors (Morgan Stanley) to associates (UBS) felt the steel. Bear Stearns continued to feel the pain of integration with JPMorgan. Reuters said JP has made job offers to only 6,000 of Bear’s 14,000 staff. Dealbreaker said they were being offered less than they got at Bear. JPMorgan was also said to be closing or spinning off most of Bear’s... Read more

It’s down to regulators to reform the bonus system. And given regulators are powerless to intervene, reform looks as likely as a small village in Hampshire becoming the financial centre of the UK. Regulators are certainly making scary noises. From Mervyn King’s anti-bonus diatribe, to Sir Callum McCarthy’s call for banks to emphasise long-term performance, snarls and grunts about bonuses have been emanating from the regulatory corner for several months.... Read more

Lost your job in an investment bank and want to work on the buyside? You’ll be lucky. The Financial Times ran an article yesterday which said that Pimco, the world’s biggest fixed income fund manager, has been approaching Wall Street banks that are making redundancies in the hope of hoovering up a few of their cast-offs. But before anyone gets the wrong idea, moving from an investment bank to the... Read more

Performance measurement in asset management houses is coming out of the doldrums, and salaries are heading northwards. The performance measurement departments of fund managers are stereotypically seen as the refuge of number-crunching geeks assessing the viability of investments, but change is afoot. Oliver Hinchliffe, senior consultant at Project Partners, which has just completed a salary survey of the sector with i-Performance-Analysis.com, says: “Heads of performance are increasingly thinking more strategically about... Read more

The CBI is predicting as many as 11,000 financial services job cuts by June. Asset managers, however, are still hiring. Today's survey from the CBI and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers suggests employment in the financial services industry is falling at the fastest rate since 2000. But while all around are lopping staff, fund managers are recruiting at a rate of knots. The survey reveals that, on balance, 88% of asset managers said they'd supplemented... Read more

The hot air surrounding the pensions buyout space is finally turning into substance, and guess what? Hiring looks set to follow. The buyout market has long been touted as a sector set to explode, but some bumper deals have thrown it into the spotlight. Last week, Rothesay Life, the life insurer wholly owned by Goldman Sachs, secured a £700m deal with leisure retailer Rank Group, and buyout firm Paternoster took on... Read more

As more and more fund managers look to exotic products like 130/30 funds, a massive gulf in skills is developing. In a 130/30, up to 30% of a portfolio can take a short view, with the proceeds of the short sales used to purchase 30% additional longs. Sounds confusing? Well, that’s the point. These funds, often tagged ‘hedge funds light’, beef up returns, making traditional managers keen to get a... Read more

Bankers may be waking up to the notion that bonuses go down as well as up, but fund managers may have no need to. According to a survey of over 1,000 fund managers by asset management search firm Godliman Partners, cash compensation for fund managers rose anything from 10-20% between 2006 and 2007. Fastest rises were reserved for mid-ranking equities fund managers with between five and nine years’ experience, who... Read more

Citigroup may be planning to axe more people than Goldman Sachs employs globally, but there are still reasons to be cheerful. The latest survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the CBI confirms that general sentiment across the financial services industry is now as low as it was in 1998 and 2003, neither of which were good years for banks. On the other hand, hiring plans appear to be going ahead regardless. Securities traders remain... Read more