The Wall Street Job Report

UBS Names Co-Chief for Asian Operations

Cyrus Sanati, The New York Times, September 28, 2010

Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, the co-head of UBS’s investment bank, has been named co-chairman and co-chief executive of the bank’s operations in Asia. Mr. Wilmot-Sitwell will relocate from London to Hong Kong in November and will lead the region together with Chi-Won Yoon, the bank’s current chief executive in Asia.

Carsten Kengeter, who is the co-chief executive of UBS’s investment bank with Mr. Wilmot-Sitwell, will now become the sole head of the investment bank. Both men entered the roles in 2009, following a management shake-up at the unit after the bank experienced heavy losses from the financial crisis.

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Morgan Hiring Slowdown More Than a Pause

The New York Times, September 28, 2010

Like a lot of investment banks, Morgan Stanley won’t be doing much hiring in the fourth quarter. As the end of the year approaches, jumping to a new job becomes less and less likely in finance because new employers have to buy people of their bonus — that is, compensate for the money they would make if they had waited for the check.

Yes, Morgan stopped hiring for its investment banking and sales-and-trading units more than a month ago, but the moratorium, according to a person at the bank, has just as much to do with a longer cycle of hires as it does with the seasonal pause in the industry.

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Companies May Fail, but Directors Are in Demand

Susanne Craig and Peter Lattman, The New York Times, September 15, 2010

For 16 years, Marshall A. Cohen served as a director of the American International Group, stepping down just months before the company’s near-collapse in 2008. Several months later, Mr. Cohen was again in demand, joining the board of Gleacher & Company, a New York investment bank.

Gleacher expanded its board last year to include not only Mr. Cohen but Henry S. Bienen, who served as a director of Bear Stearns from 2004 until its rescue by JPMorgan Chase in March 2008.

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A.I.G.'s Asian Unit Appoints Chief Financial Officer

Bettina Wassener, The New York Times, September 15, 2010

HONG KONG — In a key move before its planned stock market listing in Hong Kong, the Asian life insurance unit of the American International Group named a chief financial officer on Wednesday, filling a position that had been vacant for several months.

Marc de Cure, whose past career includes four years as chief finance officer of AMP, a major Australian wealth management group, as well as serving as a principal adviser of Bain & Co., will start the new position Sept. 27, American International Assurance, also known as A.I.A., said in a statement.

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BofA Chief Shares His Vision, Finally

Brian Moynihan (above)

Dan Fitzpatrick, The Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Boring is back.

That is the message Bank of America Corp.'s Chief Executive Brian Moynihan is expected to deliver on Tuesday at an investor conference. Mr. Moynihan intends to lay out his long-term strategy for the nation's largest bank by assets, arguing it can withstand new regulatory clampdowns by squeezing more out of what it has, pruning its balance sheet and making its earnings more consistent, if less dramatic.

The plan, Mr. Moynihan's strongest attempt to present a new vision for the bank, revolves around more cross-selling to customers, companies and institutional investors who interact with the retail, corporate and wealth-management parts of the bank.

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Lehman Still Haunts Wall Street Efforts to Rebuild Broken Model

Christine Harper, Bloomberg, September 13, 2010

Two years after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed under $613 billion of debt, investors are questioning whether the investment-banking model that fueled record profits in the middle of the decade can be repaired.

Of 10 banks with large capital-markets business units, onlyGoldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are trading close to their price on Sept. 12, 2008, the last day of trading before Lehman filed for bankruptcy. Citigroup Inc. has lost 78 percent, and Bank of America Corp. is down 59 percent. The average is a 23 percent decline, more than double the 10 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the same period.

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I.M.F. Calls for Countries to Focus on Creating Jobs

Liz Alderman, The New York Times, September 13, 2010

OSLO — Rising long-term unemployment, especially among young people, poses the next big threat to the global economic recovery, theInternational Monetary Fund warned on Monday.

Slower growth is forcing governments to expand social safety nets and stimulate job creation even as they rein in finances. But with hundreds of millions of people unemployed worldwide, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the I.M.F., said the financial crisis “won’t be over until unemployment significantly decreases.”

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Goldman Names Asset Management Chairman

The New York Times, September 10, 2010

Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist best known for coining the BRIC acronym, has been named chairman of the firm’s asset management business.

Mr. O’Neill, 53, will remain based in London and will report to Ed Forst and Tim O’Neill, co-heads of the firm’s investment management division, which includes Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The asset management business oversees $802 billion in assets.

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BP Hirings at Barclays: Building Up an Energy Team

The New York Times, September 10, 2010

Barclays Capital has hired seven sales executives from BP, in a move meant to bolster its energy trading business in North America, according to an internal memorandum obtained by DealBook.

The hirings are part of Barclays’ effort to expand its physical trading business and better compete against the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. (Read the memoafter the jump.)

Troy Black and Paul Dunsmore will become managing directors in the United States energy sales, exploration and production team, according to the memo from Roger Jones, head of commodities, and Craig Shapiro, head of commodities distribution.

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At Goldman, Partners Are Made, and Unmade

Susanne Craig, The New York Times, September 12, 2010

On Wall Street, becoming a partner at Goldman Sachs is considered the equivalent of winning the lottery.

This fall, in a secretive process, some 100 executives will be chosen to receive this golden ticket, bestowing rich pay packages and an inside track to the top jobs at the company.

What few outside Goldman know is that this ticket can also be taken away.

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Nomura Bulks Up in North America

Alison Tudor, The Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2010

HONG KONG—Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc. has hired a team of natural-resource bankers and is opening offices in Houston and Toronto this month, its latest moves to expand in North America.

But costs are rising, and two years after Nomura bought the overseas operations of Lehman Brothers, Japan's biggest broker by revenue still has a long way to go to reach its goal of becoming a top global bank.

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Diamond to be new head of Barclays

Bob Diamond (above)

Patrick Jenkins, Financial Times, September 7, 2010

Barclays on Tuesday confirmed Bob Diamond, head of its fast-growing investment bank, as its next chief executive.

Mr. Diamond, who runs BarCap from New York but will move back to London to take up his new post, will be paid an annual salary of £1.35m, up from the current £250,000. His annual bonus will be two and a half times his salary – £3.37m – and he will also receive a long-term incentive plan of five times his salary.

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Peek Returns to Banking With New Job at Barclays

Jeffrey Peek (above)

The New York Times, September 8, 2010

Jeffrey M. Peek, the chief executive who built up the CIT Group, only to see it nearly capsize during the financial crisis, has returned to his investment banking roots with his latest job.

Mr. Peek will join Barclays Capital as a vice chairman in its investment banking division, the firm announced on Wednesday. He will advise clients across the firm, with an emphasis on financial services firms, and will report to global investment banking head Skip McGee.

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UBS Hires Two Bankers For Singapore - Based Private Bank Unit

Reuters, The New York Times, September 8, 2010

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - UBS has hired two bankers to join its ultra high net-worth team in Singapore, the bank said in an internal memo.

The team will be focused on developing business in Southeast Asian markets, UBS said.

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Sweet on Goldman

Lloyd Blankfein

Top-ranked in employee satisfaction

Mark DeCambre, The New York Post, September 9, 2010

Maybe Lloyd Blankfein is Wall Street's best boss or maybe fat bonuses actually buy employee happiness.

Either way, Goldman Sachs, the richest bank on Wall Street, is considered the best financial firm to work at, according to an online survey by employee consulting site Vault.com.

Blankfein's investment bank beat out other "Masters of the Universe," such as Steve Schwarzman's private-equity firm The Blackstone Group, which , which ranked second, and Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan Chase at No. 3.

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