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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

Longevity risk has several things in its favour. It’s interesting and allows for the study of social and demographic factors, such as the higher life expectancy for certain age cohorts in the UK compared to Continental Europe (possibly due to WW2). It’s a growth business. And banks are ploughing into it. It’s unfortunate, therefore, that there don’t really appear to be many jobs on offer yet. Structured products recruiters, eager for something... Read more

Nassim Taleb, of Black Swan fame, appears to have got into trouble for implying that people with Asperger’s Syndrome shouldn’t be employed as risk managers. In Fooled By Randomness, Taleb suggests that people with the syndrome suffer from a kind of future blindness which inhibits their ability to judge risk properly. Taleb appears to have fallen foul of Asperger’s sufferers, because as Paul Kedrosky points out, he has felt the... Read more

Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley has refreshed its monthly prognostication on financial services employment in London, and issued some predictions for 2010. In total, it says around 42,000 new jobs came onto the market in London in 2009. In 2010 this is likely to rise: Morgan McKinley surveyed 124 HR people and line managers in financial institutions; 83% were expecting even more hiring in 2010. Given the difficulties some people faced in finding... Read more

It is with regret that we inform you that if you wanted to get in on Morgan Stanley’s risk re-build you’ve probably left it too late. Financial News reported yesterday that Morgan Stanley has ‘more than doubled’ the size of its market risk team over the past two years. Needless to say, Morgan Stanley’s ramping up risk taking. Excessive caution contributed to it falling badly behind Goldman in terms of sales and... Read more

Despite the fact that deadline for implementing the FSA's new liquidity rules are fast approaching, nearly half of UK banks are still unprepared. But, as they begin to get their houses in order, new opportunities are being created for risk managers. The FSA's rules are due to come into affect on 1 December, and will require banks to conduct more frequent and granular stress tests, as well as shake up existing... Read more

Ratings agencies have had both their reputations and balance sheets battered by the financial crisis, but for the first time in two years there are signs things are looking up. And the big players are tentatively re-building their teams once again. Standard & Poor's has just reported its first quarterly rise in revenues in two years, while Moody's has issued a bullish statement about 2009 earnings expectations (despite posting an 11%... Read more

Increasing regulatory requirements around banks' boards is making it even harder to find sufficiently qualified non-executive directors (NEDs) from what was already a shallow talent pool. So, what type of person should financial institutions be looking for now? One of the issues raised from the Financial Services Authority's remuneration document was that "remuneration committees should have a majority of non-executive directors, one or more of whom should have practical... Read more

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today on the emergence of high frequency trading at Citadel. Alongside claims such as high frequency trading was developed because it was seen as “easy to understand,” the WSJ offers the revelation that, in 2008, Citadel's returns from the 55 people it employed in high frequency were $1.15bn. That implies a return of around $20m per head. Needless to say those 55 people wouldn’t... Read more

Considering the current climate, it's not surprising that bank's are increasingly concerned about counterparty risk – the chance that a partner in a deal may default – and specialists in this area have witnessed something of a reversal of fortunes recently. "Counterparty risk is probably the most pressing issues facing many banks at the moment, especially from other banks," says Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. One... Read more

Some front office bankers look like getting bumper bonuses this year, but risk managers are trying to bolster their base salaries in anticipation of smaller variable compensation. Hidden among statements about deferrals and stopping multi-year guarantees in the FSA's remuneration document is the suggestion that bonuses within risk and compliance functions shouldn't be linked to the performance of the business. The motivation, of course, is to increase the objectivity... Read more

Here's the next in our series of uplifting posts about real people who really did lose their jobs and then found new (and sometimes better) ones. Current role I'm currently working as a market risk analyst with a focus on liquidity risk reporting, modeling and the implementation of stress scenario testing. Previous role I was previously employed by a BB European investment bank as a corporate... Read more

Barclays Capital’s trade support deficiencies may prompt banks to strengthen their teams in the area. BarCap’s failings were nothing if not comprehensive. Yesterday it was fined £2.45m by the FSA after it emerged that 100% of its reportable transactions across every ‘core asset class’ (except cash equities where a mere 84% were affected) were reported either inaccurately or not at all between 1st November 2007 and 31st October 2008. Although this... Read more

Geneva’s preeminence in oil trading is an ominous warning of what could happen to the City if banks decide the UK tax system is too onerous.Over the past decade the Swiss city has cemented its status as a European oil trading hub, attracting trading houses such as Gunvor, Mercuria, and Sempra Energy Trading, so that it’s now on a par with London as Europe’s leading oil trading centre.The resulting cluster... Read more

The theory is that with banks being forced to run a tighter ship, the expertise of risk managers has never been so much in demand. But is this really true? "While you might think that the role of risk manager has been elevated, in fact the opposite is the case," says Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. "Organisations are in such a defensive posture at the moment that any... Read more

As someone with long experience of working in the finance function of investment banks, I can safely say that front office bankers are not always very nice. I have been threatened with violence, humiliated, and shouted at on many occasions. It’s easy to say that front office bankers’ are self important because they’re revenue generators and everyone else is a cost. This is undoubtedly a big factor, but the reality... Read more