Would you like a £9.5m ($13.6m) job as CEO of Barclays investment bank? If so, you may be in a minority. – Barclays has reportedly decided to leave the job unfilled because no one (good) wants to do it.
It’s not for want of trying. The headhunters of Spencer Stuart have been looking for candidates. They approached Blythe Masters, but she was too busy with Bitcoin. Other potentials like Daniel Pinto at J.P. Morgan are heavily engaged elsewhere. The role does seem to have a certain jinx to it – there have been at least three heads and co-heads to Barclays investment bank in the past four years. It doesn’t exactly bode well for career longevity.
Instead, therefore, Jes Staley will be head of Barclays’ investment bank himself. Not only will Staley run the entire Barclays’ empire, he will be the official hands-on CEO of the investment bank for regulatory purposes. All this probably suits Staley, who held senior positions in the CIB at J.P. Morgan. It means, too, that Staley gets to adhere to his policy of non-hiring to reduce costs.
The real question is whether Staley will have the ‘bandwidth’ to oversee the detailed operation of Barclays’ investment bank along with his oversight of the rest of the group. He needs to hope he has. The UK’s new Senior Manager’s Regime – which apparently discouraged other U.S. candidates from taking the job – leaves Staley personally liable for financial penalties and personally open to criminal proceedings if he’s found to be negligent. And Barclays investment bank doesn’t exactly have spotless record when it comes to employee wrongdoing…
Separately, it’s not just Goldman Sachs and HSBC that are making noises about moving jobs out of London if Britain leaves the European Union. The City of London Corporation says J.P. Morgan, Barclays and Citi are doing it too. If you’re trading euro denominated products in London, you may want to start investigating living arrangements in Frankfurt and Paris.
Meanwhile:
Blackstone’s new fund ‘Senfina’ has fallen 15%, but is still hiring. (Financial Times)
The first quarter wasn’t THAT bad. Despite extreme volatility there were no big losses (except in Goldman’s Investing & Lending unit). (WSJ)
Three banks say they’re number one in M&A. (Bloomberg)
Credit Suisse just hired Henrik Aslaksen, former head of global M&A at Deutsche. Senior M&A bankers never retire – they just become ‘chairmen’ and who ‘focus on the largest clients.’ (NYT)
Time for Goldman Sachs to engage in a “merger of equals.” Or not. (Gadfly)
Senior bankers are retiring. Ali Abbas Alam, co-head of Credit Suisse’s emerging markets financing group for Asia Pacific, is leaving the bank after 16 years. (Reuters)
David Basra, head of EMEA financing, is leaving Citi too. (Global Capital)
What to tell yourself when you think of leaving banking. (Twitter)
Here’s how much fat you’ll shed with a standing desk.(Time)
Motivation doesn’t last. It’s a slutty, insatiable feeling. (James Altucher)
Fund managers in the UK react to regulator’s orders to desist with the lavish entertainment: “. “Soon we will be having a golf day without golf balls, a fishing day in the gym and we will be watching Formula One racing on the office television.” (Financial Times)
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Photo credit: empty chair by alamodestuff is licensed under CC BY 2.0.