eFinancialCareers

Monday was Clifford Sacks’ first day as Ceo South Africa and head of Pan-African equities for Renaissance Capital, the Russian investment bank that is expanding aggressively in emerging markets. Before joining RenCap, Sacks, who is South African, was co-Ceo for SA and Sub-Saharan Africa at BoA Merrill Lynch, a well-respected investment banker with twenty years’ experience and a deep knowledge of African equities. His task is to open and staff a... Read more

The party may be over for fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) professionals. At last week’s investor day, JP Morgan said margins in the fixed income business were down 50% and likely to stay that way. US banking analyst Dick Bove says senior traders have told him they’re not making money. And yesterday Bove cut his earnings estimates for Goldman on the grounds that trading activity has been disappointing, ‘across... Read more

Last year we observed that high yield was giving hope to the long term unemployed. Today we’d like to reiterate that. According to Financial News, UBS has continued its strategy of hiring out of work people and brought on a team of five former high yield/distressed debt professionals who previously worked at Credit Suisse. The five, led by Dermot Murphy who joins UBS as co-head of non-investment-grade credit trading, left Credit Suisse... Read more

Like BofA (and sadly unlike RBS), Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, UBS ranks among banks that have escaped the shackles of government funding. And in a remarkably rapid return to form, it intends to use its freedom to ramp up in fixed income and is proclaiming an increased appetite for risk In last month’s Investor Presentation, UBS laid out plans to increase revenues in its debt unit to CHF8bn... Read more

With bonuses imminent and most fixed income currencies and commodities staff expecting theirs to be large, buying someone out in November may seem lunacy. But UBS’s third quarter results illustrate why - even at this late stage in the year - it may be worthwhile. Having scaled back its fixed income operations dramatically in 2008, UBS has had a change of heart. In the three months to September, it reportedly... Read more

If you wanted to get hired this year, it would have helped considerably if you’d worked in FX or interest rate sales. Hiring in both areas has been brisk. Morgan Stanley yesterday said it’s increased headcount in FX by 20% this year. And earlier this month, Brady Dougan said the bank’s interest rates business was the biggest contributor to revenues in the first half. As the slide we reproduced in today’s... Read more

If RBS thought it could hire in a few people on large packages without causing a media furore, it was wrong. Fresh from the weekend fuss over unseemly bonuses, it’s now embroiled in a further fracas regarding packages paid to Merrill bankers who’ve apparently moved over to join the £7m man Antonio Polverino. The Telegraph reports that RBS has lifted 11 fixed income from Merrill on one year guarantees of £500k.... Read more

Thanks to the probable combination of high stock payouts, higher salaries, and longer deferrals, this year’s cash bonuses may well be disappointing. Total packages may be more impressive though, particularly if you have the good fortune to work in one of the areas below – and the patience to stick around until everything vests. 1) Commodities Successful commodities traders are in the fortunate position of having had a good year and... Read more

When we wrote a few weeks ago that long term unemployed bankers are now irreversibly excluded from the job market, something (or someone) was bound to disprove it. The high yield market is that thing. Over the past month, high yield hiring has gone wild. There have been senior additions everywhere from Bank of America (which has also hired in distressed debt sales and trading), to UBS, <a href=" http://www.credit-agricole.com/banking-:-account-bank-and-business-banking-171/press-releases-195/general-press-releases-203/calyon-appoints-youssef-khlat-as-global-head-of... Read more

Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) divisions of investment banks have been the main drivers of solid first half results, bumper bonuses are expected and even crisis stricken banks are recruiting in this area. Life is good, right? Well, perhaps not for much longer. Credit Suisse analysts have suggested in new report that as the shock of Lehman's collapse begins to wear off, these markets will return to normal in the... Read more

RBS’s results haven’t been very well received by the market, but they should be pleasing to anyone working for/interested in working for its investment bank. After the alleged departure of 700 top bankers earlier this year, it seems the bank is now digging deeper to keep hold of the people it likes. “We know to our cost, having suffered significant resignations of valuable staff members this year, that we cannot... Read more

If you’re looking for a banking job and don’t secure one in the next ten days, the likelihood increases dramatically that you’ll still be looking at Christmas. In ten days it will be August 1st. In August everyone goes on holiday and it becomes difficult to a) arrange interviews and b) get hires signed off. There’s a brief window in which this can be achieved in early September, but come... Read more

Everybody knows that the jobs market is extremely competitive at the moment but thinking outside the box when it comes to your job search could go a long way in helping you to secure that role.Recently, Morgan McKinley conducted a survey of 600 UK finance professionals who are currently job hunting. We found that a third (34%) said they would relocate to secure their next career move. In addition to... Read more

Today we have another sign that things are better than they have been. The PricewaterhouseCoopers CBI quarterly survey, which has not been cheerful in recent quarters, shows a significant increase in hiring. The survey asks whether financial services firms in particular categories have increased or decreased employment in the past three months, and whether they plan to do the same in the next three. It then gives a figure equivalent to... Read more

According to Bloomberg, former Dresdner Kleinwort employees are unleashing their fury over Commerzbank’s alleged decision not to pay promised bonuses and to withhold their severance payments, and are taking the bank to court. There aren’t very many furious Dresdner bankers though. Bloomberg says only eight are going ahead with court cases. They’re all former senior Dresdner Kleinwort bankers and executive committee members. This seems a bit disappointing. Dresdner Kleinwort has made... Read more

As everyone who has not spent the past six months in a cocoon or broadband notspot will know, fixed income trading has done particularly well in the first half of 2009. JPMorgan thinks 2009 will be a record year for fixed income revenues, with a 34% increase predicted over 2008. Equally, Credit Suisse analysts said in a note released this week that thanks to a combination of strong inventory gains, reversal... Read more

Morgan Stanley made a big move in exchange traded derivatives (ETDs) last week. It hired Clark Hutchison and Bill Templer, co-heads of exchange traded derivatives at UBS, in what the FT described as “an effort to become a top tier broker in the listed futures and options industry.” Exchange traded products aren’t doing badly. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the value of outstanding European exchange traded derivative contracts rose... Read more