Should you work in Canary Wharf? Or the City of London? In the high-rise landscape of international finance? Or among the Portland-stone buildings of London- past? Architectural preferences aside, it seems there’s a good reason to be based in the City: the average person there gets paid more.
Updated figures from the Office of National Statistics, reported in yesterday’s Evening Standard, show that the average pay package (bonus and salary) for someone working in the City of London in 2012 was £84k. In Tower Hamlets, where Canary Wharf is based, it was £59k.
Banks like Citi, Barclays, Bank of America, JPMorgan, HSBC and Morgan Stanley are based in Canary Wharf, while Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, RBS Global Banking and Markets, and Goldman Sachs are based in the City of London. Does this mean Deutsche, Goldman and RBS pay a lot more than Citi etc? Unlikely: pay at Canary Wharf may well be diluted by people working in non-banking jobs across Tower Hamlets.
Interestingly, however, bankers at Canary Wharf were seemingly paid a lot less in 2012. As bonuses declined, gross pay packages in the borough fell by a massive 25% compared to 2011. In the City, they were down just 5%. City-based bankers are unlikely to escape as lightly in 2013: both Goldman Sachs and RBS are expected to cut pay substantially this year.
Separately, there is more good news for laid-off commodities traders. Wells Fargo is taking this opportunity to build a London commodities desk, reports Financial News. Unfortunately, its hiring intentions aren’t huge: it wants ‘a couple’ of agency traders in the City. They will report to Janet Mirasol, who was recently in hired in the U.S. as head of the bank’s over the counter and listed derivatives metals team.
Meanwhile:
Bank of America paid $131.8m to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission charges that its Merrill Lynch unit misled investors about collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) it structured and sold before the financial crisis. (City Am)
Now that the Volcker Rule is in place, there will be a rush to fill hundreds of positions between January and March, including lawyers, junior compliance staff and technology experts. (WSJ)
SAC Capital Advisors LP might not have much to do with Deutsche Bank because Deutsche pulled a credit line after the hedge-fund firm was accused of insider trading. (Bloomberg)
Accenture wants to hire people based upon their social media presence. A high klout score will help you here. (WSJ)
Swiss private banks’ return on equity has collapsed. (Economist)
What to do when you have too much work. (HBR)