Citigroup has been hiring in London this year. As we’ve noted on various occasions, the U.S. bank led by Michael Corbat (now feted for his steady aptitude) has been staffing-up, with the London securities and banking division adding 108 people between June and October alone.
Citi’s hiring spree seems to have made an impact on pay. New figures from financial services pay benchmarking company Emolument suggest that director level compensation at the U.S. bank is £370k, substantially higher than the £335k on offer at Deutsche or the £325k on offer at Credit Suisse. Emolument said figures at the top ten banks (including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan) were relatively similar. Citi, however, looks like an outlier – which helps explain why so many people have gone to work there in 2014.
Separately, financial services recruiter Astbury Marsden has done some calculations and concluded that the financial services recruitment market is thriving. Despite a similar study released last month by rival recruitment firm Morgan McKinley which showed that finance jobs in London were floundering, Astbury Marsden’s figures suggest there were 2,500 new City vacancies available in November, up 38% on November 2012.
“We have seen more hiring to support growing activity in equities and equities derivatives trading. In particular we are seeing banks put increased resources into the more specialist equity derivative products, and into their quantitative trading programmes,” said Mark Cameron, Astbury Marsden’s COO. Regulatory hiring was also said to be strong.
Meanwhile:
This year’s RBS bonus pool is….£500m. Allegedly. (ITV)
Quant hedge funds have misfired since 2009, losing money in four of the past five years. They will also be the worst performing hedge funds by strategy this year. (Economist)
Jamie Dimon recently refrained from giving interviews to focus on client meetings.(Dealbook)
Tony Shiret has reached a confidential settlement in his age discrimination case against Credit Suisse. (Bloomberg)
Fixed-income trading could become about as profitable as equities. In other words, not very. (Financial News)
In Singapore, housing allowances have fallen to about US$2,000 to US$3,200 a month, compared with between US$6,400 and US$8,000 prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. (Financial News)
Bank of America shares are up 36% this year and have hit 52-week highs more than two dozen times. (Charlotte Observer)
Bonuses for the highest paid bankers in the UK now average four times salaries and are incongruent with the bonus cap. (Financial Times)
London’s top earners in asset management could be hardest hit by a cap, as their bonuses are more than five times fixed pay. (Telegraph)
Man sells testicle to buy dream car. (Independent)
Why you should apply for a job on a Monday. (QZ)