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

In the midst of last year’s exodus from BofA Merrill Lynch, various reasons were put forward for the heavy outflow of senior bankers. Most frequently given was the difference in culture between the two banks. For example, BofA Merrill’s back office was said to be overly bureaucratic, with the result that Merrill Lynch traders became frustrated at its ‘slow and stupid ways’. Separately, Merrill’s M&A bankers were said to be peeved... Read more

Somewhat surprisingly for a bank that’s firmly under the thumb of the Treasury, and where two thirds of bonuses are typically less than £1k, The Telegraph today accuses Lloyds of paying excessive and distortionary packages to attract people to its wholesale business. The Telegraph fails to elaborate on the precise nature of these distortions and Lloyds didn’t call us back for immediate comment. However, it’s notable that when Lloyds hired... Read more

If you’re looking for a hot new area with wonderful growth potential and the possibility of new and exciting products, government debt may be it. According to the FT’s Gillian Tett, ‘the word inside some big western investment banks is that public finance is set to be a focus for innovation in the coming years, in much the same way, say, that mortgage finance or leveraged buyouts used to spark so... 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

These have not been good years to work in leveraged finance. After reaching a roaring, froth-covered crescendo in 2007, the market has been dormant pretty much ever since. But now, there are signs of life. It’s not a lot of life. Figures from Dealogic show syndicated leveraged loans for European financial sponsor buyouts peaked at $59bn in March 2007; in November 2009 they stood at $2.4bn. Things are looking marginally better... Read more

When we posted an article last week suggesting who might be hiring in the short interval before Christmas, some of you pointed out that we’d missed off RBS. The bank has allegedly being approaching all kinds of people in its zeal to recruit. So how desperate is it? In some areas, the answer appears to be very. One of those areas seems to be equities. The business was hit by the departure... Read more

Lloyds Banking Group's use of a contingent capital debt exchange earlier this month has led many to speculate whether other banks could follow suit in an attempt to appease regulators' liquidity concerns. If this happens, it's likely to result in more advisory business for investment banks, so what people will be needed to work on these deals? The deal, which saw Lloyds launch a £7.5bn exchange of existing debt for contingent... Read more

Fine times for anyone who has been out of the market for more than 12 months: Rob Jolliffe, the former head of origination and primary markets debt at RBS, has made a dramatic comeback. Jolliffe has joined UBS as joint head of the global debt business. He left RBS (voluntarily) in early 2008 and appears to have spent his leisure as chairman of the trustees of the National Botanic Garden... 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

One of the big hirers of the year is Jefferies, the mid-sized US investment bank which has been taking advantage of the market dislocation to hoover up staff. Yesterday it emerged that Jefferies has hired 17 London-based people for its rates business as it joins the queue of contenders moving into the government bond space. But while Jefferies should be a recruitment firm’s dream, it sounds very distinctly like a... Read more

Economic recovery is being spoken of tentatively and banks like Houlihan Lokey tell us they’ve hired their fill of restructuring specialists in Europe for the moment. Is the restructuring hiring boom a thing of the past? Maybe not. Richard Fleming, UK restructuring leader at KPMG, says there’s still plenty of work to do. "The last couple of months have been quieter across the industry, but we're in the eye... Read more

For a moment over the weekend, it looked as if RBS were going to throw all caution to the wind and pay the kind of money needed to unequivocally retain its key staff and prevent another Singapore-style walkout. However, no sooner had The Times suggested the average RBS-er was on track for £240k, with senior staff set to receive £1-5m, than a ruckus broke out. Lord Myners promptly said large bonuses... Read more

BofA has missed expectations and its stock is sliding. But were it not for its fixed income trading operations, the situation would be a whole lot worse. This time last year, fixed income traders at Merrill Lynch were the villains of the piece. John Thain had just arrived, and was looking at cutting thousands of jobs. Fixed income traders were initially spared while they sorted out the mess they’d caused, but... Read more