eFinancialCareers

Hedge fund giant Man Group is set to double the amount it spends on technology going into 2009 and has employed contractors to carry out new projects. Does this mean that the hedge fund space could provide much-needed opportunities for IT contractors from other areas of finance? Sadly not…. In the second half of 2008, Man Group has spent $10m on technology, up from $6m in the first half of... Read more

The short answer would be very. IT budgets are facing double-digit reductions, more redundancies are on the cards, and projects are being put on ice. But… there are opportunities out there. Merrill Lynch, formerly Wall Street’s biggest tech spender at around $4bn annually, is set to slash technology headcount radically, and aims to save around $7bn through the Bank of America merger. And the effective elimination of Bear Stearns and... Read more

Are you a technologist working in one of the UK banks that has received a government handout? Be afraid, very afraid…. A new report by the TowerGroup suggests that the UK’s banking industry is going to be split into two as a result of the government’s recapitalisation. Those which have received the bailout will be forced to adopt a low-risk business model, while those which have decided to go it... Read more

Earlier in the year, hedge funds were providing an oasis of hiring activity for techies with financial services experience. But recent pressure on the industry has meant that they are likely to spend 40% less on IT in 2009 than they did in the previous year. Not surprisingly, recruitment has slowed. New research from the Tabb Group suggests that shrinking assets under management and more hedge funds falling by the... Read more

Any IT contractors thinking the last bastion of high daily rates was at Goldman Sachs should think again. The bank has issued a take-it-or-leave-it 15% cut to all its contractors, according to The Register. Goldman follows the example of JPMorgan – although both banks delayed the rate cuts, they’re deeper than the typical 10-12% reduction enforced by most i-banks this year. Merrill’s IT contractor rate cut, announced back in May, set the... Read more

IT contractors are facing average rate cuts of 12% more or less across the board in investment banks, but JPMorgan has gone one better – take a 15% pay reduction or face termination. The new rate cuts are due to come into force at the end of the month, and any contractor who refuses could face the sack. JPMorgan pins the move on “prevailing market conditions”. In a letter sent... Read more

Technologists working in finance who have spent their career carving out niche skills may find themselves falling by the wayside in these tighter times. Firms are now looking for a diverse range of technical abilities, leadership and business acumen, according to recruiters. “It’s not enough just to have the technical skills,” reckons John Estes at Robert Half Technology. “We continue to see people and companies wanting a jack-of-all-trades person.” Craig... Read more

Recruitment at financial technology vendors has been a relative hive of activity this year, and revenues are holding up in the face of shrinking technology budgets at investment banks. However, doubts remain over how long this can continue. Some of the bigger players have posted impressive growth during the third quarter. Oracle Financial Services Software reported a 23% year-on-year revenue rise, Temenos was up 42% on the same period in... Read more

Technologists working in investment banking who are able to demonstrate business nous have seen a 5% uplift in their salaries in the last three months, while pay elsewhere in IT has remained static, according to a new salary survey. The average IT worker in an investment bank saw their pay slip by 2.4% in the second quarter of this year, according to a survey by financial IT recruiters JM Group,... Read more

Merrill Lynch has spent $39m in the third quarter of this year trimming headcount within its technology division. The exact number of IT staff who have been shown the door is undisclosed, but the bank says it’s shelled out nearly $40m through severance packages and the accelerated payment of stock options for employees “primarily in technology”. Merrill has reduced headcount by 3,300 since this time last year, mainly... Read more

Pay for IT contractors working in financial services has slumped to its lowest level for five years. Considering the snowballing announcements of rate cuts for contractors within investment banks, this won’t exactly come as a shock to them, but many are now looking to other industries in the face of shrinking options in finance. A survey of 4,500 IT contractors working in the finance industry by the Association of Technology... Read more

Ireland – which has established itself as a centre for banking IT operations – looked like a prime candidate to suffer in the light of shrinking technology budgets in financial institutions this year. However, appetite for hiring seems undiminished and performance has defied market conditions. First Derivatives, an Irish-based firm that provides support services to the investment banking market and derivatives technology industry, has posted a 21% increase in profits... Read more

Singapore is increasingly becoming the location of choice for banks offshoring development roles from the UK, but they’re also keen to hear from experienced Western techies for more senior positions. When Barclays announced it was offshoring 1,800 IT jobs to various locations across the world, it was assumed India might be the main beneficiary. However, it seems the vast majority of jobs will be housed in the newly-established technology... Read more

Insurance firms’ IT budgets only seem to get bigger and, as opportunities in investment banks shrink, technologists are increasingly looking at what jobs the industry has to offer. Not only have insurance companies been investing in replacing their clunky legacy systems, they’ve increasingly been forced to invest in technology around the risk and compliance space, according to research from Datamonitor. The firm surveyed 200 global insurers in the first... Read more

Want to position yourself next to an organisation with a dynamic attitude towards IT investment in financial services? Best look to insurance or building societies then, because banks, fund managers and securities firms are all looking to curb spending. Across financial services, appetite for IT spending is expected to shrink over the next 12 months, according to the latest quarterly review from the CBI/PricewaterhouseCoopers. Asked whether they’d spend more cash... Read more

The Lloyds TSB union thinks the bank should stop offshoring functions – in return for government support over the HBOS merger. However, industry experts predict that not only is this unlikely, but also that more IT roles are likely to be shipped out going forward. HBOS had planned to offshore 250 permanent IT roles to India, plus 200 contractor positions, by the end of the year. This is in addition... Read more

You would have thought that technology staff at Lehman and Merrill Lynch would be among the first to go in the wake of takeovers and mergers. However, while there will undoubtedly be redundancies, many IT staff may escape the axe. Barclays and Nomura are buying up the scraps of Lehman. Nomura has already bought Lehman’s Asian operations and is the sole bidder for the European arm, which could secure... Read more

Lehman’s IT contractors are flooding the market, but it seems that having the ex-investment bank on your CV is no bad thing and competitors are keen to take them on. The bank has long been seen as a technology powerhouse, having spent $1.14bn on IT in the last year. And its innovation has been highly regarded: it pioneered grid computing and was able to sell the system it developed... Read more

While investment banks are trimming back their IT budgets, wealth managers are only just starting to spend, and they’re eager to take on techies. By the end of this year, European wealth managers will have spent $1.7bn on technology, according to IT consultancy Celent, a 14% increase on 2007. David Thorne, director at SEI Global Private Banking, says the IT splurge is to cope with the wealth managers’ growing business... Read more