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The risk management job market in Hong Kong remains comparatively buoyant, fulled by risk professionals moving between banks about every two years. Banks are also adding new headcount, particularly in operational risk.

But if you work in the function, how do you know whether your Hong Kong risk salary is still competitive?

We’ve averaged out Hong Kong salary surveys from five recruitment agencies across credit, market and operational risk to produce the table below, which shows base pay from analyst to director level.

If you want your Hong Kong risk salary to rise rapidly in the near future, work in operational risk. Pay increases for people changing companies average between 20% and 25%, say recruiters.

“Operational risk is experiencing the most upward pay pressure in Hong Kong because of new regulatory requirements around reporting, trade capturing and cyber security, which are creating a lot of new jobs in this area,” says Clara Shing, manager of financial services risk and products at recruiters Robert Walters in Hong Kong.

“In operational risk ensuring that risk frameworks meet regulatory changes is a priority for many smaller banks,” adds Jack Leung, a business director at recruitment agency Hays in Hong Kong. “But demand is still high at the large banks too, so pay is being pushed up as small firms try to attract candidates from bigger competitors.”

By contrast, market risk job seekers are receiving pay increases of ‘only’ 10% to 15%. Demand for candidates in Hong Kong has peaked, says Shing. “They’re getting lower increments as trading activities have been scaled back, so there’s limited new headcount in market risk.”

In credit risk you can expect a 15% to 20% pay rise if you move to a new bank. “Credit risk has seen a steady flow of openings throughout the year in Hong Kong,” says Leung. “But it’s still an employer-driven job market. Banks are willing to take their time when recruiting and are offering more conventional increments.”

Most banks in Hong Kong pay bonuses of between 25% and 30% of salary at all seniority levels, adds Leung.

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Andrea Orcel, the president of UBS’s investment bank, says that the bank is listening to its employees. While most large investment banks have announced plans for a new EU hub as the UK prepares to leave the bloc, UBS is the one big firm to remain suspiciously quiet.

There’s a reason for this, according to Financial News, which interviewed Orcel at its offices yesterday – it wants to know where its employees are prepared to move to. “That means I don’t lose employees, I don’t need to rehire, retrain, and I have a team that is going to be a lot happier because the large majority of them want to go to that location,” Orcel said.

UBS has asked many of its 5,000 London employees where they’d like to go. “How can we get the largest number of people to say, ‘Okay, yes, I can go there?'”

This makes sense. For a start, there’s an increasing feeling that maybe Frankfurt isn’t the most alluring place to convince employees to leave London for. Yes, it might be offering craft beer to convince bankers its not a boring place to be, but financial services professionals in places like Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid remain convinced that their city offers the best lifestyle perks. UBS bankers may not get lucky, however, as the bank has already indicated that it could choose Frankfurt to relocate up to 250 London jobs.

But there’s another motivation for UBS, and other investment banks to get the buy-in of their employs – Brexit ‘phases’. The initial employees asked to depart are merely those that have to go in order to retain access to the single market. After that, banks might just decide to centralise functions in a new European hub.

“I think that shift away from London will be significant, but because of the stickiness [of London] it will be staged,” said Orcel, which was reported by the FT. “The question is what happens at the end date. Do you need your ecosystem here? Do you need your IT and operations here?”

Separately, Goldman Sachs is repeating the mantra that it’s a technology company, and now its job ads reflect its mission to become the Google of finance. Business Insider has obtained some figures from CB Insights, which shows that 46% of Goldman’s recent job postings were within technology. Operations was the next biggest area of recruitment. Sales and trading staff hoping for some opportunities as Goldman prepares to build its fixed income team can at least take solace that its securities division was third, but fixed income strats roles made up the largest proportion.

Meanwhile:

Orcel thinks making money in equities will be even harder under MiFID II: “I actually think it’s inside the top five, the top five doesn’t break even. Now you look at this environment. You’ve just moved the bar up.” (Bloomberg)

French bankers returning home for generous unemployment insurance can think again (Reuters)

Staff at the European Banking Authority in London are leaving, and fewer people are applying for new roles (Reuters)

Banks are moving thousands of jobs to Poland, but don’t blame Brexit (Financial Times)

Banks are still struggling to attract people from working class backgrounds (Financial News)

Natixis has named Joseph LaVorgna as its chief economist for the Americas (Reuters)

Charles Prideaux, who headed up BlackRock’s active stock-picking unit, is joining Schroders (Financial News)

Sergio Ermotti: “I don’t think Europe in its existing form has any chance to succeed. If you want to succeed, to compete against China and the U.S., you need to have – which is a taboo right now – a more federal model: one defense, one foreign policy, one minister of finance.” (Bloomberg)

Forget back-stabbing, it pays to be nice to your colleagues (HBR)

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For a while, it seemed that banks were jettisoning brainteasers from their interviews. That interviews were more about “fit” and ethics and finding people who resemble existing high performers.

This might be the case for jobs in the investment banking division or compliance, but as banks increasingly automate everything – investment banking included – what they really need are problem solvers who are also technologists. People who can break a complex problem into its constituent parts and devise a logical solution.

If you’re interviewing for a technology, or a “strats”, or even a risk job, therefore, you will encounter interview questions that test your problem solving ability. These might not be the kinds of jobs you’re applying for, but they’re the kinds of jobs banks have in increasing numbers: a new report suggests that nearly half of the jobs going at Goldman right now are in the technology division. If you’ve got a brain that can create an equation or write a piece of code that will automate the client communication process, you’re in.

To get these kinds of jobs, you’ll need to answer the kinds of questions we’ve listed below. These have all been asked in tech and quant interviews at banks like Goldman Sachs and hedge funds like Brevan Howard and Citadel in the past 12 months. Bear in mind that these are the easy ones. They also don’t require you to write any code. We’ve started with the easy ones.

Questions sources include: Glassdoor, GeeksforGeeks, CareerCup, Wall Street Oasis.

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Two former UBS managing directors have quit their day jobs and set themselves up in fintech hub Level39 to uncover potential investments.

Juan Luis Bellon, a managing director focused on investment banking deals from family offices and billionaire wealth management clients at UBS, left in July. He’s just teamed up with Juan Rodriguez Andrade, the former head of equity-linked transactions at the bank who left in September last year as part of cuts to its EMEA equity capital markets team, to reinvent themselves as fintech investors.

The two men have started Kontxt.xyz, which is looking at early stage investments in fintech start-ups of up to $200k. They are based in Level39 “looking at companies full-time” as angel investors in seed and pre-seed funding rounds, says Bellon. Level39 was launched in 2013 and has grown into a 80,000 square foot accelerator space for fintech firms on the 39th, 24th and 42nd floors of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf.

“I believe B2B (SaaS [software-as-a-service, IaaS [infrastructure as a service]) will be a core segment for fintech in the mid term and incumbent knowledge will be a key differentiator for successful early stage investors,” said Bellon in an emailed response.

They’ve also teamed up with Carlos Bellon, an assistant professor at Universidad Pontificia Comillas who also worked for J.P. Morgan in London and Rafael Chao, an investment director at real estate investment firm Elandis. Both are based in Madrid.

Senior bankers are increasingly finding their services in demand among fintech firms attempting to pitch their wares to institutional financial services companies. The business to business firms, as opposed to the fintech firms that target consumers, often struggle to get in front of the right people in banks. Those with years of experience in the industry, and the right contacts, are cottoning on to this.

Ben Leonard, the co-head of the financial institutions group at HSBC in London, launched a firm called Meta in August, which aims to bring banks and fintech start-ups together.

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When Deutsche Bank’s analysts released their list of questions about European banks yesterday, they had a few queries regarding Barclays including what the bank’s doing to boost revenues earned from its risk weighted assets, whether it intends to increase the market share of its investment bank, and how it plans to improve its return on equity (RoE).

In a presentation today, head of the corporate and investment bank (CIB) Tim Throsby has offered some clarification. Barclays is going for growth. If you’re looking for an investment bank that’s willing to take trading risk, look no further. If you’re looking for a bank that’s growing in M&A, you’re in luck. If you want a European bank with a balanced business and strength in the U.S., Barclays is it.

For all Barclays’ historic strategy flip-flops, Throsby’s vision has a certain appeal.

1. Barclays’ trading business is well divided across credit, equities and macro…

Throsby would like to point out that Barclays already ranks second globally in high yield trading and fourth globally in flow credit trading.

tim Throsby strategy Barclays

Source: Barclays

2. Throsby is building out the markets division

Since becoming CEO of Barclays’ investment bank in January 2017, Throsby has done some big hiring. In May, there were reports that he planned to hire 50-100 people for the markets business. By July, he’d already hired 20 senior equities professionals along with the likes of Asita Anche from Goldman as head of markets quantitative e-trading and data science, Filippo Zorzoli from BAML as head of EMEA macro distribution. In August, it hired a new head of equities from Credit Suisse and this month it hired Michael Lubinsky from Brevan Howard to head macro trading.

Barclays is the hiring story of 2017. Throsby has budget and he’s not afraid to use it.

Throsby 2

3. Throsby wants to redeploy capital to the investment bank

While other banks trim the capital they’re allocating to their sales and trading businesses, Barclays is doing the polar opposite. It wants its traders to have more capital and is allocating an additional £6bn to them this year, to be distributed as follows.

Throsby Barclays

**4. And to provide additional leverage**

The extra risk weighted assets allowed at the investment bank will be accompanied by an additional £50bn of leverage… Lest there be any doubt: risk taking at Barclays is back on.

Throsby leverage

5. By doing this, Throsby plans to hike revenues and returns in the investment bank

By increasing RWAs and leverage (and hiring some more traders), Throsby wants to set Barclays back onto the line below. Right now, it’s underneath.

Throsby markets income

6. Although there are still “cost efficiencies” to come in the journey to 10% return on target equity in the CIB

The only slight issue is cost-cutting. Although most of Barclays’ improved return on equity is supposed to come from capital redeployment and business growth, there will be some additional “cost efficiences” too. Throsby clearly has cash to to splash, but don’t assume Barclays will be too liberal at bonus time.

Throsby costs

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Photo credit: Barclays by Insider Monkey is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Wall Street banks do far less recruitment in the second half of the year, but headhunters say that hiring activity is much more robust than this point in 2016. It may be unusual for bankers to make a move late in the third quarter or in the fourth quarter, but firms are still making hires for front-office roles – even when they have to buy out or guarantee the new hire’s bonus.

For example, after cutting its investment banker headcount last year, Nomura is in the middle of a big hiring spree in the U.S., reportedly “incentivizing them pretty strongly to make it worth their while, either jumping up a level or making bonus guarantees for associates through MDs,” according to a source who asked to remain anonymous. In addition, that same source said that Jefferies is aggressively hiring associates and vice presidents for some groups, especially technology investment banking.

Looking more broadly, here’s where Wall Street banks are still recruiting in early autumn.

Associates and VPs in middle market banks

M&A boutiques are taking advantage of their new-found position on some of the biggest deals by bolstering their mid-ranks. Mike Brothers, a manager in the investment banking practice at Michael Page, a recruitment firm, says the focus is on associates and vice presidents right now.

“Banks know that if it is a seat that needs to be filled, that person is not going to forego a full year’s bonus, so they’ll make someone whole,” Brothers says. “Another scenario: A firm is expanding, it has liquidity and the budget to offer candidates strong bonus buyouts.

“On the candidates’ side, are people looking to move now because they want to get the buyout or are they truly looking to build their careers and take on a new or expanded role?” he says. “Firms are careful, and the challenge of buying out the bonus is there’s no way to verify what their bonus will be.

While associates and VPs are in demand, most people are not willing to make a move at this time, and it is not as common for small and mid-sized banks to be gung-ho to pay someone out this late in the year.

VPs in large investment banks

Large banks in the U.S. are also competing for the mid-ranks. Sarah Harte, executive director of global markets at Sheffield Haworth, a recruitment firm, says that it’s going to be VP and below where there’s going to be most of the hiring between now and the end of the year, even at bulge-bracket banks.

“The interviews currently happening are mainly at the VP level and more junior-level roles, which will still get hired at this time of year,” she says. “A lot of those you don’t really have to pay guarantees for – most juniors will move if they get a decent uplift on their base salary and at least some type of verbal guarantee for a bonus.

“It’s tough to get a specific guarantee this time of year, but they’ll look at the candidate’s compensation over the past few years, offer maybe a 20% uplift, shake their hand and bring them on board.”

Restructuring

As we pointed out, UBS in the midst of a hiring spree for a new restructuring team in New York. It’s not the only one. At both large and middle-market banks, there has been a fever of activity in restructuring, largely because their teams are so lean, says Harte.

Equity derivatives

While cash equities desks continue to shrink, Harte says that banks are willing to hire elsewhere on their derivatives teams.

“There’s a lot of people moving across Delta One trading this year in New York and that’s probably going to continue into next year, as well as synthetics and prime,” she says.

Front-office quants

Naturally, as quants take over both buy-side and sell-side firms, electronic and algorithmic traders and other front-office quantitative roles continue to be hot. Skills such as algorithm execution and derivatives modeling are in high demand.

“We are still very busy in the quant space, working across equity quant strats, hedge fund analytics roles, index strats and equity derivatives quant strats,” Harte says.

“For any of the quant roles, they really need people who have got PhDs in computer science, math or physics, and they need to have at least five years of experience in some sort of front-office quant role to be considered for a VP role,” she says.
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Brexit will present German-speaking bankers in London with the opportunity for a big promotion if they’re prepared to accept a new role in Frankfurt. One executive director at Nomura in London has got ahead of the pack by taking a big new M&A role in the German city.

Cay-Marco Fritsch, who worked as an executive director at Nomura in London, is now a managing director and the new head of corporate finance and M&A at ING within its wholesale division in Germany and Austria. This is a new team at ING, and Fritsch is currently building a new M&A team of five people in the “medium term”, according to a bank spokesperson.

There’s evidence that this hiring drive has already started. ING’s wholesale division has 300 employees in Frankfurt, but currently has 20 roles available including for analyst, associate and VP roles across corporate and investment banking.

The new role appears to be a big step up for Fritsch, who started out at Lehman Brothers in London on 2007, before its European operations were acquired by Nomura in 2008. He was a VP until September 2014, when he was bumped up to executive director. Fritsch started out in M&A at pharmaceutical firm Celesio in Stuttgart, where he worked for five years until 2005, when he when to Manchester Business School to study an MBA.

“The goal is, among other things, to support the client relationship managers in the strategic dialogue with their existing customers,” said an ING spokesperson. ING has been making a big push expanding its commercial banking functions in Germany recently, so it’s likely that the new M&A team will look for synergies with its corporate bankers.

Standard Chartered in Singapore has hired a senior relationship manager from DBS as it continues to build its Asian private bank.

Abhijit Shetty joined Stan Chart as a director earlier this month, according to his online profile. We understand that he mainly handles non-resident Indian (NRI) clients based in Singapore, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Shetty spent five years at DBS, covering the same client segment, and was a high performer. He achieved 140% and 120% of his AUM target in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Prior to DBS Shetty was at ANZ in Singapore for three years as an NRI team head, focused on the Indonesia market. During his previous job at HSBC (2008 to 2009) Shetty started the bank’s Indonesia NRI market from scratch.

Like most of his NRI contemporaries, Sharma made his name onshore in India (at Citi) before moving offshore – he transferred internally with Citi to Singapore.

Sharma’s hire forms part of Stan Chart’s push in Asian private banking. It has recruited more than 50 experienced private bankers and advisers since the final quarter of 2016. Earlier this month, for example, the bank took on Jack Wu and Pauline Ko, from HSBC and Deutsche Bank respectively, as Hong Kong-based MDs covering Greater China.

As we noted last week, however, Stan Chart’s recent attempts to poach more ex-Barclays bankers away from Bank of Singapore have not met with much success. It now appears to be turning its hiring attention to other wealth managers.

The NRI job market in Singapore has been active recently. As we reported in June, Julius Baer recruited veteran NRI banker Sanjeev Sharma from Bank of Singapore.

BoS is itself building its NRI capabilities, having recruited Harjeet Singh from BNP Paribas in June as a team leader. BoS also took on Chandan Gupta from DBS in April. Other recent NRI moves include Divya Menon joining Credit Suisse from DBS, and Feroze Sukh moving to Safra Sarasin from ABN AMRO, along with a six-strong team.

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The Masters in Finance (MIF) qualification is slowly gaining traction in Singapore, a city where mid-career banking professionals have traditionally preferred taking MBAs.

But where should you study if you want a MIF that will help you boost your finance career in Singapore?

We searched our CV database for financial professionals in the Republic who have a Masters in Finance to their name, and we found out which business school they attended. We then ranked the 15 most popular of these universities to produce the table below.

Because the MIF has only recently emerged as a popular qualification in Singapore, the data set is not yet large enough to examine the business function of graduates or the type of firm they work for (but you can click here for our global list of top MIF schools for getting front-office jobs at leading investment banks).

However, our numbers do show that spending tens of thousands of dollars to study abroad may not be worth the effort.

Of those who attended one of the top-15 business schools, 60% studied locally – either at a domestic college such (SMU or NUS, for example) or at a Singapore campus of an overseas institution such as ESSEC or INSEAD.

If you do want to leave Singapore for your Masters in Finance, one city stands out: London. The four most popular foreign-based courses – London Business School, London School of Economics,
Imperial College, and Cass – are all based in the British capital.

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The head of fixed income structuring at UBS in New York has left the bank after more than 16 years to join HSBC.

Chris MacKenzie will be tasked with providing a boost to HSBC’s U.S. business unit focused on structured asset and financing transactions for sell-side financial institutions, hedge funds and private equity firms. McKenzie served in a similar role at UBS, where, in addition to both buy-side and sell-side firms, he also worked with emerging-markets and insurance clients and was responsible for group revenue performance and product innovation.

Mackenzie is a rare senior hire at HSBC, which has been losing managing directors in both the U.S. and UK over the past few months. Transportation and infrastructure MD Greg Hely-Hutchinson left for Duff & Phelps, the former head of U.K. FIG investment banking Ben Leonard is now investing in fintech, the ex-Americas -head of oil and gas advisory Carlos Garibaldi left and Luis Galeano, the head of its consumer investment banking unit in the U.S. is now heading up a cookie company.

On the other hand, Coalition and McKinsey findings place UBS’s investment banking division in the third tier – among ‘regionally focused banks strong in some product areas’ (in the case of UBS, equity derivatives) – as it places more strategic focus on wealth management and asset management in some regions, including the U.S.

UBS has started building a new restructuring team in New York and recently landed ex-Goldman Sachs U.S. algorithmic trading, sales and coverage head Peter Sheridan, who is leading its electronic trading distribution team in the Americas.

In addition, Rich Crossley, who was most recently the APAC CIO at J.P. Morgan, recently joined UBS as its new global head of equities technology. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he had been the global head of equities technology at Citi.
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The worlds of work and study have been transformed by digital developments. Business education is no exception and this is enabling an increasing number of busy, tech savvy professionals to undertake online qualifications.

This is notably the case with online MBAs. The Graduate Management Admissions Council reported a 7% increase in demand last year from 2015, while two-thirds of institutions offering online MBA programmes expected to increase their class size last year as new online MBAs are steadily introduced worldwide.

“Having a global professional existence doesn’t allow you to commit to any reasonable time frames,” says Ed Perryman, Global Online MBA alumnus at Imperial College Business School. “I travelled a great deal with work and I knew that I would miss lectures if I undertook a weekend or part-time MBA programme. What I needed was to learn on the go, fitting it around my professional life – an online MBA was the perfect solution.”

Here Imperial College Business School provides five comprehensive reasons why students like Ed are turning to these accessible, flexible and respected online MBA qualifications:

1. It’s the very definition of flexible

An online MBA attracts students for whom the traditional on-campus experience wouldn’t work. Many have work or family commitments that cannot be sacrificed for up to two years. Or they travel for work, run businesses or hold senior leadership positions that make a regular schedule impossible to commit to.

Students on Imperial’s Global Online MBA are required to be on campus in South Kensington for just two weeks of the programme. The programme is primarily delivered online through Imperial’s bespoke e-learning platform, The Hub, which can be accessed anywhere, any time.

Talia Hussain, founder of Ramnation, was converted. “Putting my business on hold didn’t seem like an opportunity. I needed the flexibility to work and study at the same time without sacrificing on earnings.”

Andy Durban, Student Recruitment Manager at Imperial College Business School, adds: “Over the years, I’ve noticed a definite shift in the programmes candidates are looking for.

“Whilst there will always be a place for traditional face-to-face programmes, modern professionals are increasingly looking for something that allows them to work towards a prestigious, recognised qualification at a time and a place that suits them,” says Durban.

2. It has real business application, immediately

An online MBA is more than an academic exercise. It helps students develop their career strategy, build on leadership skills and develop self-awareness. All of which can be applied straight away.

Ed Perryman was promoted to Group Sales and Marketing Director at a leading provider of private education whilst studying the Global Online MBA at Imperial.

“In this role I work closely with the CEO and the Finance Director on our broader strategy,” says Ed. “The progression of my role meant that I now have more interaction with the board and private equity owners. Coming from an exclusively marketing background, I have learnt a broader level of financial and other business acumen on the Global Online MBA that gives me more credibility in the boardroom.”

Ceri Willmott, Careers Consultant at Imperial College Business School, describes their Personal Leadership Journey (PLJ) module as a “blended approach”, involving self-paced learning, reflective exercises, personal 1-2-1 support and interactive plenary sessions. “Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of the relevance and impact,” she says.

Dubai-based Asmar Atif says about the PLJ: “I’ve learnt more about myself than I have in my 12 years of work experience. It’s helped me to develop self-awareness of the skills I need to progress.”

3. An online MBA attracts a diverse and powerful network

Students on online MBAs bring a diverse range of experiences into the virtual classroom. Its flexibility over more traditional MBA formats make it more accessible to a wider range of professionals at different levels of experience, from career accelerators to senior leaders.

Crystal Grant, Head of Admissions at Imperial College Business School, says: “Our position as a business school at the heart of one of the world’s leading STEM universities attracts candidates from engineering, technology and healthcare, alongside traditional MBA backgrounds like finance and consulting – and increasingly more creative industries.”

The breadth and depth of experience found on an online MBA programme ensures powerful peer-to-peer learning, but also a strong sense of community, from which networking relationships can easily develop. Be sure to check how a business school manages this experience.

There are often plenty of opportunities to collaborate online and across time zones. “My class has a WhatsApp group and then sub-groups split into topic areas,” enthuses Asmar. “We interact daily: if one person has a question, then lots of others drop in to help. Every month, we take turns to give a virtual presentation on how we apply our learning to what we’re doing in our companies.”

Talia adds: “The idea that your colleagues are going to be down the corridor – especially as you move into senior levels – is an outdated concept. I love my peers and our WhatsApp group is by turns helpful, informative and hilarious.”

4. Technology creates an outstanding learning experience

Business schools are becoming more sophisticated in the way they use technology. Imperial College Business School has an award-winning where its online learning platform, The Hub, was built.

David Lefevre, Director of the Edtech Lab, says: “The Hub replicates the essential components of an on-campus MBA programme in a format flexible enough to study around work, family and other commitments. Students can contact their professors and advisors on The Hub for feedback.”

They can also discuss and explore issues with their online classmates, and post and share comments on articles, case studies, and completed exercises – insights that might not be heard during an in-class experience.

“For me, having the ability to download the programme content, get on the plane, and fire through an hour’s worth of video was perfect,” says Ed.

Find a business school that uses its own virtual learning environment to deliver the online MBA, so you know the functionality you need is there. Can you easily log in and out across devices? Do you have the option to live stream lectures or access pre-recorded content?

5. An online MBA from a top business school is a highly respected qualification

As more top business schools offer online MBAs, there has been a shift in how the market and employers perceive them as an attractive and credible qualification.

Some providers, like Imperial, offer students the option to take elective modules on campus, alongside Full-Time, Weekend or Executive MBA students, eradicating the barrier between the on-campus and online programmes.

On graduation, all students receive the same Imperial MBA degree – regardless of how and where they studied.

“The admissions process for the Global Online MBA is as rigorous and thorough as our on-campus programmes, and we look for the same aptitudes, strengths and potential for academic and career success.”

If you want to learn more, get in touch with the recruitment team at Imperial College Business School: imperial.ac.uk/business-school/global-mba

If you’re a graduate who’s thinking of joining a private equity fund, Terra Firma has plenty to recommend it. It offers what’s said to be an “excellent” graduate training programme, along with a savings scheme that should amount to 40% of the cost of an average house in London if you stick around for five years. This might be why graduates flock to the house of Hands at the rate of 1,500 a year for just six roles. But while juniors are still curious about Terra Firma, experienced hands seem to be moving in the opposite direction. – Insiders say there’s been an exodus of senior investment staff.

Recent exits include Alex Williams, Jyrki Lee Korhonen and Michele Russo, whom Terra Firma appointed as managing directors in May 2016. Williams and Korhonen left in April and May respectively. Russo is said to have negotiated an exit at the end of the summer, but is still listed as employed on Terra Firma’s site. All three spent less than 18 months at the firm.

The departures of Williams, Korhonen and Russo follow that of other various other senior investment staff in the past year. Peter Miholich, a former managing director in Nomura’s credit business, who joined Terra Firma in September 2015 left 12 months later according to the FCA Register. Julie Williamson, a longstanding Terra Firma MD who joined from Nomura in 2002 left at the same time. Tavra Banga, a former Citi M&A banker who joined in 2007 left around January 2017.

Because of the exits, some of which were the possible result of retirement, insiders say Terra Firma has comparatively few investment-focused staff left, and that of the previous stable of managing directors with a primarily investment role, only Robin Boehringer remains on the senior management team. Terra Firma’s own site suggests there are nine members of senior management (Russo and Boehringer included): Guy Hands himself, Justin King (head of portfolio businesses), Andrew Géczy (the CEO), Trudy Cooke (mostly legal), Paul Spillane (investor relations), Dominic Spiri (finance and structuring) and Andrew Miller (operational). Last year, Terra Firma was reportedly planning to bolster its investment ranks with Iain Kennedy from the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, but the hire never happened.

Terra Firma declined to comment for this article. The apparent depletion of the firm’s senior investment team comes as Hands is reportedly planning a new £2.6bn buyout fund after withdrawing his EMI-related lawsuit against Citi and hiring Justin King (ex-Sainsbury’s) and Andrew Géczy (ex-Lloyds) last year. One insider says the senior exits are simply the result of “changes” made by Géczy since his appointment as managing director. Some may also follow Terra Firma’s reported decision to cut staff salaries in January 2016. The fund says it employs 87 people in total, and added an ex-Nomura MD to its investor relations function last May.

Terra Firma typically hires six people onto its graduate scheme annually. This year’s hires could get an opportunity to work on the firm’s new buyout fund, although it’s not clear how much of this has been raised. They should also get the chance to work with Guy Hands (juniors in London reportedly spend three months shadowing him, even though he’s based in Guernsey for tax reasons and is mostly a remote presence). And they should get an opportunity to work with members of Hands’ family: past graduate recruits include his son and nephew, both now at associate level within the firm. “We joke that it’s a bit like working for Donald Trump,” one insider says.

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Goldman Sachs is the most open-minded bank to work for. So said a recent survey by Emolument.com. It also now allows its tech employees to wear whatever they want to work. Even so, it’s unlikely there are shaven headed people with multiple piercings working for GS yet – although we could be wrong (J.P. Morgan employed a big bearded shaven headed hipster to its tech team in March, for example).

One Goldman employee has therefore had to go outside the bank to seek advice from a counter-cultural oracle. Jay Smith, a 29-year-old with tribal earrings and an intentionally bald head, dropped out of school aged 14 and became a professional video gamer. He lives in Basingstoke, a town outside London. Bloomberg reports that Smith is now a cultish figure on eToro, a trading platform that enables retail investors to trade crytpocurrencies like bitcoin, and to copy the strategies of its bitcoin trading masters. Smith is one of the latter: in the past 12 months, his bitcoin portfolio is up 295%.

Although Jamie Dimon says bitcoin is a fad, someone at Goldman clearly takes it seriously. At a recent eToro reception, a Goldman analyst was reportedly dispatched to hear Smith hold forth on bitcoin’s gyrations. Smith was only too happy to oblige. Video gaming and bitcoin trading may yet emerge as a new route into a job in banking.

Separately, if you’re looking for a trading job and you didn’t go to a top university and you don’t want to trade bitcoin, you might want to become a trader on the buy-side. The Trade just released a list of rising star traders (mostly aged 40 and under) in asset management firms. While some studied at the likes of Cambridge or Harvard, they’re the exceptions. Most went to universities not typically on banks’ hiring radars. Robert Mitchelson, head of EMEA rates trading at Blackrock, for example, went to Portsmouth University, while Robert Mitchelson, a multi-product trader at Liontrust went to Southampton Solent. In buy-side trading at least, it still seems less about where you went to school, more about your P&L.

Meanwhile:

Bank of America is moving former CFO and head of capital markets, Bruce Thomson, to Dublin. There, he will lead the bank’s new EU global banking and markets hub. (Financial Times)

Cryptocurrency hedge funds are a thing. “I love crashes. That’s great for me.” (Financial Times)

James Gorman says cryptocurrencies are more than just a fad. (CNBC)

Tim Throsby said things were pretty dire at Barclays’ investment bank when he arrived. (Bloomberg)

Expats in Switzerland earn an average of $193k. (Bloomberg)

Given their time again, most bond traders would do something completely different. (Quartz)

Teenagers appear too cynical to benefit from mindfulness interventions. (BPS Digest)

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Andrew Shortland has spent 30 years in senior equity trading roles in the City, and is under no illusions about how most people end their investment banking careers.

“There are three ways out of banking – you die, you’re fired or you leave in handcuffs,” he says. “There’s a fourth option, which is rare, and that’s to leave on your own terms.”

For the last eight years, Shortland was the head of international equities at Jefferies in London, but he left in March. After a few months skiing, rock climbing and relaxing with family he has now started his own firm, Andrew Shortland Associates. He has been replaced by Ed Keen, previously the head of EMEA equities at the bank.

Shortland, known as ‘Shorty’ within Jefferies, says that CEO Rich Handler and president Brian Friedman sent a “glowing” email around the bank on his final day. Nonetheless, the impetus for leaving wasn’t entirely positive.

“There were personal things in my life that made me reassess things. One of my children was very sick and three friends were thrown in jail,” he says.

Shortland has three children – two boys and a girl – and his middle son was diagnosed with acute aplastic anaemia, a disease where the bone marrow does not make enough blood cells for the body. Eventually, his son recovered thanks to a bone marrow donation from his daughter.

Meanwhile, in 2015 three Jefferies equities traders, Hamish Maclellan, James Hyde and Phillip “Joe” Jenkins were sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being convicted of cheating tax authorities through a film investment scheme. Their appeals have since been rejected.

All of this fed into his decision to leave and, in his last two years at Jefferies, Shortland said that he made some tough choices about what to do with his life. “We had some training by Mckinsey consultants and it challenged me to think about how you grow yourself, your leadership style and general happiness in your life,” he says.

Too many people in investment banking are happy to stick with what they know, he says. “People want to stay at the epicentre of their comfort zone, but you stop growing and learning if you stay there. It’s important to challenge yourself and try something new.”

Surviving on the trading floor

Despite spending 30 years in banking, Shortland has not really moved around. He started his career “making cups of tea on the London Stock Exchange for £6k a year” in the mid-1980s, and worked for three years at Morgan Stanley before moving to Bear Stearns in 1992, where he eventually rose to head of international equity trading.

Shortland says he would “still be at Bear Stearns” were it not for the small fact that it collapsed in the build up to the 2008 financial crisis. Shortland, and a team of around 30 equity professionals, were lifted out and brought into build a new equities desk at Jefferies in London. Over the course of the next five years, he says that the team expanded to over 300 people.

Equities is one of the most heavily electronified parts of the trading floor, and investment banks’ teams have been decimated as more trades were carried out by computers. Shortland claims that longevity comes from having the right reputation and relationships with clients.

“You should always think about your reputation,” he says. “The core emotions on the trading floor are greed and fear, and I’ve seen a lot of people’s judgement clouded by greed. They take shortcuts and often don’t think straight. In banking, you build relationships for the long-term. If you’re thoughtful and upstanding, you can have a very long and fruitful career.”

Shortland is flying entirely solo with his new venture. He says that the firm will offer a variety of services from matching capital hungry companies with potential investors, to internal consulting for investment banks. The “associates” part of the name comes from the people he knows – a rolodex of “4,500 people” who he could potentially put in contact with the companies he’s working with.

“Investment banks don’t have a lot of grey hairs, because they fired a lot of MDs,” he says. “I’d like to offer an independent perspective on which business areas they could close, expand or trim down.”

In his last 18 months at Jefferies, Shortland says that he took on an internal consulting role. In particular, he says that he reinvigorated the Japanese equities business – dubbed Japan 2.0 internally – “upgraded” some staff and built out the division in Asia.

Often, he says, changing a business area just means getting the right people in place.

“You have to look at management and culture – maybe there’s a manager breeding a toxic environment who no one enjoys working with, who’s not prepared to resign but they have a department growing stagnant around them,” he says. “Also, I want to look at diversity – investment banking is still too male-centric.”

Breaking into banking

Shortland says that all three of his children have decided to follow in his footsteps and are attempting to start out in banking. Is this a good idea?

“Equities isn’t exactly a growth area,” he admits. “My three children all want to go into investment banking. The advice I give them is that the best area of investment banking, and one that will continue to grow for years to come, is the advisory business. That bridge between companies and capital will always be needed.”

Like other senior investment bankers who have since left big institutions, Shortland believes that it’s still the best place to start out. “Investment banking is still the best training you’ll receive. If you decide to go off and do something else, it opens a myriad of opportunities,” he says.

Shortland says that he’s interviewed “hundreds” of analysts and traders over the years. He never went to university, and instead started out in the City after school. “I was grateful to get a job.The mid-80s were a tough period, and the prospect of employment made me shelve the plans to go into the Royal Airforce,” he says.

Now, every single applicant to an investment bank comes from a top university with impeccable academics, and Shortland says it’s a “filtration device” for banks’ HR teams. Whenever he interviewed potential recruits, however, he says that he always tried to find “something different”.

“I spend interviews talking to people about anything other than banking,” he says. “I used to have colleagues who would throw tough maths questions at candidates, but that’s not my approach. I want to feel at ease with them, because if they can’t make me feel at ease they’ll struggle with a client. I tend to make them feel comfortable, so that I can see the real person.”

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How long does it usually take to become a vice president (VP) at J.P. Morgan? If you’re in the investment banking division, you might possibly be able to make it within five years thanks to the newly truncated analyst programme, although several J.P. Morgan associates were still promoted to VP after seven years last January. If you’re in the sales and trading division it’s more variable, but there may be one way of jumping the queue: quitting one bank as an associate and joining J.P. Morgan as a V.P.

The latest person to pull this off is Liesbeth Baudewyn, a former associate from Credit Suisse’s programme trading business. Baudewyn just joined the Hong Kong office of J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a vice president. She started full-time at Credit Suisse in London in 2012 and only became an associate there in June 2015, making her ascent (reasonably) impressive.

J.P. Morgan has been building its equities sales and trading business and now ranks equally in first place with Morgan Stanley. Credit Suisse ranks between 7th and 9th according to Coalition. Baudewyn is, however, working for J.P. Morgan’s asset management division where she’ll focus on equity trading and analytics. Nonetheless, it looks like a big step up – both in terms of rank and bank.

Program traders are being squeezed by algorithms and the incursion of electronic trading teams onto their territory. Although Credit Suisse has been strengthening its equities business this year, second tier trading houses are also expected to suffer under MiFID II. If you can get out now, and get promoted, good luck.

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If you want a technology job in an investment bank, you’re probably thinking about something working alongside the front office – maybe building new trading or messaging systems to help banks keep ahead of competitors, or new user interfaces (UI) to allow customers to access banks’ systems directly. There are plenty of opportunities in both areas: Goldman Sachs, for example, has been heavily advertising roles for its Marquee platform which allows clients to access its SecDB risk and pricing system directly, and most banks are looking to expand in systematic trading.

While aspiring to become a revenue-generator in the front office might be a good idea if you want to work on the trading floor, however, technologists in banks caution against getting too close to the action. The best jobs, they say, are in the back and middle office – behind the scenes, working on so-called “software libraries” or building systems for HR, or finance. Here, the jobs not only pay well, but offer an easier life.

“It’s personal preference,” says one technology associate at Morgan Stanley, “but I think that the less you have to do with the business, the better.”

Technologists who work with traders in the front office complain that they (the traders) “pile on the pressure” and don’t treat them with respect. The archetypal experience of front office technologists is that of Antonio Garcia-Martinez, a former pricing strat at Goldman Sachs, who famously wrote a blog complaining that he and his colleagues were treated like, “little bitches,” and that he had to work alongside “complete tools” in sales and “bat wielding gorillas” in trading.

In the middle and back office, there’s none of this. More importantly, technologists in these areas say the work itself is more rewarding.

“When you’re working with the business, everything is driven by regulations and short term revenue considerations,” says the Morgan Stanley associate. “This affects the quality of the software you can create.”

He adds that working with the business is fine if you’re genuinely interested in banking, but says most technologists really aren’t. “In the front office, the emphasis is on solving business problems, not technological problems. With time, this will bind you to a banking career. If you want to work for industries other than banking, you need to avoid becoming too specialized.”

“If you’re purely interested in tech and you want the tech company lifestyle, you should go for the back office,” agrees one J.P. Morgan tech professional. “It’s lower pressure and there’s less finance on a daily basis.”

Of course, not everyone agrees. Front office technology jobs not only pay more, they’re also more likely to be located in London or New York City. Middle and back office tech jobs are more likely to be in India or Florida or Dallas or Poland.

“If you’re interested in the business, you should choose the front office,” says one developer. “That way you can learn how a bank works and maybe even move into a non-tech position. The front office is also probably better if you’re a UI developer.”

Alternatively, there’s always the possibility of working on middle office teams in areas like risk and finance, which straddle both worlds. “I’m interested in how the business and the tech side of banks fit together,” says one Goldman analysts. “This is why I’m in a middle office tech team – learning about both!”

Ultimately, banks’ technologists say it’s wise to establish exactly what kind of team you’re going into. “There’s huge variety in technology at Goldman Sachs,” says one. “Some teams are very tied to finance and others feel much more like pure tech. You need to work out whether you want the “relaxed” option or not.”

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Photo credit: Hidden by Fabio Barbato is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Remember the pre-dress down days, when Hermes ties were the norm in banking and everyone who was anyone wore shirts with their initials monogrammed on the cuff? An MD in the M&A team of one big French bank wants those days to return.

“I personally deplore the spread of ‘causal Fridays'”, he says, speaking off the record. “The abandonment of ties in meetings, even with clients – who then don’t wear ties themselves.”

What’s wrong with the open-necked shirt and chinos look? The MD says the absence of a shirt and tie shows a lack of respect on both sides: bankers don’t respect clients and clients don’t respect bankers. The restoration of the traditional dress code will encourage greater sophistication all round.

His objection comes after banks like Goldman Sachs have begun offering technology staff the option to wear whatever they want at all times. It also comes after junior M&A bankers at Credit Suisse and elsewhere say ties are on their way out and that, “Monday to Thursday is suit, no tie. Friday is casual,” although ties are still required for client meetings.

Nonetheless, the wearing (or not) of ties seems to have become a generational issue in banks: the junior we spoke to at Credit Suisse said he wears one always because managing directors (MDs) appreciate it and “notice this stuff.” An MD on Wall Street tells us the wearing of a tie makes him, “feel more professional” And the punctilious MD at the French bank says he always wears his suit and tie, even on casual Fridays, and that this is “not a problem.”

Have his (scruffy) clients and colleagues ever commented on his sartorial rectitude? “I don’t know,” he says. “I have other things to think of and I hope they do too.”

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Photo credit:#cravatta #nodo #hermes #tie #iphone5 #igersbologna by kilotto is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Compliance jobs are no longer as hot as they were. Banks begrudgingly hired more compliance staff as regulators clamped down after the financial crisis, but not only has this slowed, there’s increasing talk that some jobs will be automated as the robots take over.

Nonetheless, in the senior ranks, there remains a battle for the best compliance professionals and Goldman Sachs has been hiring.

Joanna Redgrave, the former co-head of EMEA securities compliance at Goldman Sachs who left for a senior role at J.P. Morgan two years ago, has returned to the bank in a senior compliance role related to its trading floor, recruiters suggest.

Also in London, Goldman has a new head of EMEA corporate governance in Carolyne Hodkin, who joined the U.S. bank from Santander earlier this month.

Goldman has been hiring for compliance in New York too. Earlier this month, it brought in Darian Futrell, a managing director at Deutsche Bank, as an MD within its corporate finance compliance division. Futrell too is a former Goldmanite, having left as a VP for Deutsche Bank in January 2016. – In other words, the last year has been good in terms of fast-tracking his career.

Goldman hasn’t just been building its compliance team though. Alan Cohen, the former head of compliance at Goldman Sachs, left in January and was replaced by controller and chief accounting officer Sarah Smith. He’s since re-emerged this month as a senior policy adviser to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Jay Clayton.

Goldman is currently hiring for analysts and associates within its securities compliance division in London, but has the most live roles in New York for compliance professionals across securities, investment banking division and asset management. Still, to some extent the compliance boom has cooled and recruitment has shifted towards technology. Of the 2,000 job listings at Goldman Sachs in September, analysed by CB Insights, 46% were in technology. Compliance, meanwhile, had the sixth largest number of roles – behind operations, investment management, securities and finance.

Goldman Sachs didn’t respond to requests for comment. In other senior compliance moves, Erik Mogavero, a managing director within its asset management compliance division, has joined investment manager Nuveen Fund Advisors as its new chief compliance officer.

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For every success story of an investment banker or market maker who moves over to the buy-side and climbs the ladder, there are tales of sell-side professionals who make the leap to a mutual fund shop, hedge fund or private equity firm only to crash and burn.

For example, Eric Mindich became the youngest ever partner at Goldman Sachs more than 20 years ago at age 27, earning him a reputation as a “Wall Street wunderkind.” He launched New York-based hedge fund Eton Park Capital Management in 2004 with $3.5bn in capital, expanding to manage $14bn in 2011, but those assets were cut in half over the ensuing six years and the fund lost 9.4% last year. In March, Eton Park announced that it was shutting down and returning the remaining $7bn-plus in capital to investors.

Regardless of how successful you have been in banking, here are six signs that you should think twice before accepting a job on the buy-side.

1. Not looking before you leap

Putting in a few years at an investment bank before joining a hedge fund or private equity firm has become such a common career path that some people plan to do it without questioning whether or not that’s best for them. It’s important to consider why you want to make the move, according to Anthony Keizner, a partner at Odyssey Search Partners.

Ask yourself: Are you running away from banking, or towards investing in particular? Are you just interviewing for buy-side positions because of peer pressure?

“Unless you’re committed to this type of work, it’ll show through – or you’ll fake it, but be unhappy,” Keizner said.

A lot of hedge funds are basically startups, and there’s a wide range of potential outcomes for such firms.

“Some [investment bankers] hear ‘Capital’ at the end of the name and they say ‘It’s a buy-side shop – sure, I’ll join,’ even if maybe there’s not a lot of information on the firm,” said Dylan Pany, principal consultant and the head of the trading team at Selby Jennings. “Sometimes a few buddies leave their former firm, start a hedge fund and they’re done after a few years, whereas some will increase their AUM tenfold.”

The industry as a whole is facing fee pressure as many hedge funds’ performance has disappointed, and often when the fees an investment firm collects go down, the compensation of its employees goes in the same direction.

2. Not being prepared for a shift in investment philosophy

A critical element in making the transition from the sell-side to the buy-side is to ensure that you understand the investment firm that you are joining and align yourself with that investment philosophy that of the company you’re leaving, according to Reshma Ketkar, a director and the head of the traditional asset management practice at Glocap.

“For example, if you are a sell-side trader making a transition to a long-only or fundamentally orientated long/short hedge fund, you may be accustomed to shorter-term trades rather than an investment process that is bottom up and has a typical hold period of one-to-two years,” Ketkar said.

3. Counting on a better work/life balance

If you’re leaving for better hours, you may end up disappointed. At some hedge funds, junior analysts have to burn the midnight oil, doing research and completing various tasks long after the markets have closed and the senior bankers have left for the day. Hedge fund traders are expected to stay late during earnings season.

“While analysts on the buy-side don’t typically work into the night like investment bankers, firms expect their analysts to be responsive during the evenings and weekends, and successful investors spend a lot of time outside the office doing research and reading 10-Ks and 10-Qs,” Keizner said.

4. Lack of experience seeing how investment recommendations play out

If you are an investment banker, you may be trained in being an adviser to your clients rather than forming a coherent investment view on a stock or a private company, Ketkar said.

Being on the buy-side, whether at a long-only shop, hedge fund or private equity firm, means taking ownership over your investment recommendations and understanding how they will impact the performance of the fund, she said. There are many elements involved.

“Ultimately you will be judged on the basis of those recommendations,” Ketkar said. “Sell-side analysts often feel that the transition to the buy-side in a research capacity should be easy because they are trained in evaluating stocks and making a buy or sell recommendation.”

5. Not being used to wearing many hats

Investment bankers who have been working at a bulge-bracket for 10 or 15 years might be effective in their role but likely won’t be able to make the move to the buy-side as seamlessly as a strong trader or analyst at a smaller bank. One factor comes down to specialization versus experience rolling up your sleeves and doing whatever the firm needs most at that moment in time.

When you start out at a hedge fund, expect your daily routine to involve a wide range of tasks. The smaller the firm, the wider range of responsibilities employees are required to take on.

“At brand names [clients and prospects] call you, whereas at smaller banks you’re making calls and working harder to generate revenue for your firm,” Pany said. “Buy-side hiring managers see JPMorgan on a candidate’s resume and say, ‘This person is a stud’ – not necessarily.

“They could be surviving based on the name, but if they move over to the buy-side, they’ll be required to do a lot more in business development and client relations, skills many people lack when moving over from the sell-side to the buy-side, because investment bankers haven’t had to do it,” he said.

6. Not being prepared for culture shock

Sure, many hedge fund portfolio managers are control freaks.

However, people often are surprised that both quantitiative and fundamentally driven hedge funds are quiet, cerebral places – not the dynamic, noisy trading environments portrayed on TV, Keizner said.

“If you find the best part of investment banking to be the collegial, fun team environment, be careful what kind of buy-side firms you apply to,” he said.

In the investment banking world, it’s traders in particular who want to move to the buy-side, whereas it’s not the same function for salespeople at a bank versus an investment firm. Regardless of role, investment bankers often struggle with the cultural aspect of joining a fund manager.

“It can be shock and awe for IBD traders who are now working on the buy-side with guys who show up in flip-flops and shorts, versus the business suit they’re used to wearing,” Pany said. “The dress code tends to be a lot laxer on the buy-side, and some people do struggle with that.

“If you’re moving from an investment bank to a small hedge fund with 20 people, it’s a totally different cultural environment,” he said. “Some ex-bankers don’t like the fact that everyone doesn’t show up in suits and ties, which is a surprising aspect that many people overlook.”
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The Masters in Finance (MIF) qualification is slowly gaining traction in Hong Kong, a city where mid-career banking professionals have traditionally preferred taking MBAs.

But where should you study if you want a MIF that will help you boost your finance career in Hong Kong?

We searched our CV database for financial professionals in the city who have a Masters in Finance to their name, and we found out which business school they attended. We then ranked the 15 most popular of these universities to produce the table below.

Because the MIF has only recently emerged as a popular qualification in Hong Kong, the data set is not yet large enough to examine the business function of graduates or the type of firm they work for (but you can click here for our global list of top MIF schools for getting front-office jobs at leading investment banks).

However, our numbers do show that spending tens of thousands of dollars to study abroad may not be worth the effort.

Of those who attended one of the top-15 business schools, 52% studied at one of the seven local universities listed on our table. The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s MSc in Finance boasts the most MIF graduates (16%) currently working in the Hong Kong finance sector, according to our resume database.

If you do want to leave Hong Kong for your Masters in Finance (and then return to work in financial services), one country stands out: the UK. Imperial College London comes in second place, while London School of Economics, Warwick Business School, and London Business School are all ranked highly.

US Masters in Finance courses are comparatively thin on the ground, and none feature in our table for Hong Kong-based professionals. Mainland China’s nascent MIF sector is starting to make an impact in Hong Kong – the Guanghua School of Management is in seventh position.

Image credit: piranka, Getty

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2. Throsby is building out the markets division

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6. Although there are still “cost efficiencies” to come in the journey to 10% return on target equity in the CIB

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**4. And to provide additional leverage**