Let this be a warning to anyone who accepts a counteroffer and doesn’t get it in writing.
The papers this morning are filled with the sorry tale of Benjamin Price, a man who spent 12 years at Morgan Stanley and progressed from analyst to ‘senior trader’ in the bank’s derivatives business. At his Morgan Stanley zenith, Price was paid £518k a year. Sometime in 2010, however, Price was headhunted by Citigroup, which offered to pay him £670k. Rather than leaving for Citi, Price took this offer to Morgan Stanley, which promised to match it.
Come the 2010 bonus round, however, Price didn’t receive a bonus making his pay up to the £670k he said been promised – he received a bonus making his total package worth £518k. And the following year, in January, 2012, Price was made redundant. The FCA Register suggests he hasn’t worked since. Price says he’s been receiving £70 per week in unemployment benefit.
He’s now attempting to reclaim £1m from Morgan Stanley for unfair dismissal, breach of contract and whistle blowing.
Meanwhile:
Jimmy Tan, an RBS trader based in Singapore, brought an employment claim alleging wrongful dismissal in the Singapore High Court and was seeking $1.5m in bonuses and 3.3m RBS shares he claimed he was owed. Yesterday, he dropped the case. (Financial Times)
Citi has been advertising for a structurer of synthetic collateralised debt obligations. (Financial Times)
UKIP vs. Goldman Sachs (Peter Sutherland, Chairman of Goldman Sachs International, is a former EU commissioner.) (Spectator)
Goldman Sachs says compensation ratios will fall everywhere next year. (Quartz)
Count Anton had been working happily as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston when his father died unexpectedly. He was not thrilled to assume the family throne. “I wasn’t interested in pencils,” he said. (NYTimes)
Deutsche Bank has banned multi-party fixed income chat rooms. (Bloomberg)
How to become a Jedi Knight. (James Altucher)
How men’s brains are wired differently to women’s. (Scientific American)