eFinancialCareers

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

After being clobbered in the aftermath of the dot com bubble, equity researchers were just starting to look perky again. But with banks now looking to cut costs wherever they can, poor old researchers are back to being bludgeoned. By our own reckoning, everywhere from Bear Stearns to Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Citigroup have been lynching research professionals. Zaki Ahmed, a research-focused headhunter at Sammons Associates, says the... 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

It was a good week for hedge funds – unless you were GLG. Banks were still busily lopping staff, although there were rays of hiring in commodities and – strangely enough – leveraged finance. Hedge funds provided reasons to be cheerful. Hedge Fund Research predicted investors plan to pour $200bn into hedge funds this year. ICAP launched an African hedge fund. It emerged that the replica hedge funds... Read more

Mervyn King has weighed in on the bonus debate. The guvnor says big payouts have encouraged too many talented people to squander their lives in banking when they could have been doing something more constructive instead. King made his comments to the Treasury Select Committee. According to the Telegraph, King says young people look at City compensation packages and think they “dominate almost any other type of career ... It's... Read more

At the risk of being eviscerated and dunked in a vat of scalding Asti Spumante (now that Bollinger’s out of reach), it’s time to say the unthinkable: bankers who find themselves suddenly unable to service enormous mortgage payments have only themselves to blame. The Times last week produced an anecdotal portrait of a new phenomenon – the ‘poor banker’ with a £700k interest-only mortgage acquired in the go-go year of... Read more

No longer the pariahs of the banking job market, equity researchers are hot property again. Many of them even got higher bonuses. Financial News reports that ‘entire teams’ of researchers are being pinched for commodities equity research positions, and that Collins Stewart is hiring for equities research sales and trading. Recruiters say Macquarie is also persisting with its equities push, which is expected to see it amass 35 researchers... Read more

Women in financial services still earn an average 9% less than men, but they’re more likely to perform well when they move on. A report by a Harvard Business School professor highlighted in a Wall Street Journal blog suggests star female equity analysts who change firms are likely to maintain their star status in their new job; men aren’t. What’s the source of female stars’ longevity? Boris Groysberg, the professor in... Read more

Forget the NHS (or even BUPA) – a growing number of medics aspire to careers in financial services. “We’ve had quite a few applications this year from junior doctors looking to move into banking,” says Emma Halls, director of recruitment firm Finance Professionals. “Most of them are very mathematical and have excellent people skills. They are keen to go into research or quant focused roles, although we’ve also had a few... Read more

Which banks and bankers are suffering the most? No prizes for guessing… ACUTE PAIN 1. Merrill Lynch Share price: down 44% since January 2007. Bonus per head*: $181.3k, down 25% on 2006. Net profit for the first nine months of 2007: $1.9bn, down 61%. Redundancies: none announced so far, but exit of chief exec Stan O’Neal is imminent. 2. Bear Stearns Share price: down 38% since January 2007. Bonus per head*: $407.6k, down 20% on 2006. Net... Read more

Spare a thought for the classes of 2007 and 2008. It seems investment banking jobs are proving hard to come by. A student at a leading European business school says banks are still coming to present on campus, but that with the exception of Credit Suisse, few appear to have any full-time places left for 2008: “Places have already been filled by last year’s summer interns. If you missed the boat... Read more

Most people sit around passively waiting for the pink slip. Has Stan O’Neal gone for pre-emptive action? Ever since Merrill revealed a $2.3bn 3Q net loss earlier this week, there have been calls for Stan to step aside. Now the New York Times says Stan’s head has moved closer to the block after he allegedly broached a merger with Charlotte-based Wachovia without first getting the approval of Merrill’s board. Putting aside the... Read more

Rising taxes and falling returns are taking their toll on the co-investing craze. “The amended capital gains tax rules will impact people participating in company co-investment schemes that qualify for business taper relief,” says Chris Sanger, head of tax policy at Ernst & Young. “Assets disposed of before 6 April 2008 will be taxed at 10%, while those disposed of from 7 April 2008 will be taxed at 18%.” Co-investing is nothing... Read more