« March 2010 | Main | May 2010 »
Posted at 10:50 AM in Current Affairs, Goldman Sachs, Lawsuits | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Julia Werdigier, The New York Times, April 30, 2010
Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, on Friday named David Mathers to replace Renato Fassbind as chief financial officer.
Mr. Mathers is currently chief operating officer and head of finance of the investment banking unit. He joined Credit Suisse in 1998 and will take on the new role at the beginning of October. Mr. Fassbind plans to remain with Credit Suisse as a senior adviser.
“David has done a tremendous job in helping to shape and implement the investment banking division’s client-focused, capital-efficient strategy,” Brady W. Dougan, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Posted at 10:45 AM in Current Affairs, Employee Activity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The New York Times, April 30, 2010 Macquarie Group said Friday that its full-year profits had jumped 21 percent to 1.05 billion Australian dollars ($977 million). The investment group has been on a buying spree in the past 18 months, The Financial Times noted. It has primarily picked up new assets in North America and Europe and today said it had acquired a 1 billion Australian dollar portfolio of car leases and loans from the Australian auto finance subsidiary of GMAC.
Posted at 10:39 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Market Watch, April 29, 2010
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA,(MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- First California Financial Group, Inc.(FCAL 2.99, -0.05, -1.65%) today announced the appointment of Bradley R. Brown as executive vice president, chief audit executive and chief risk officer of its wholly-owned subsidiary, First California Bank. Brown, 45, will oversee the audit, compliance, risk management and Bank Secrecy Act departments.
Posted at 10:37 AM in Current Affairs, Employee Activity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Karen Brettell, Reuters, April 29, 2010
NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Global investment banks would need to raise an additional $85 billion to capitalize new companies if proposals are enacted that require banks to separate derivatives trading from their commercial banking operations, JPMorgan analysts said on Thursday.
U.S. legislative proposals to reform the $450 trillion privately traded derivatives markets would also likely reduce liquidity and shift market share to new entrants such as hedge funds, which are less regulated than banks and which could increase systemic risks, JPMorgan said.
Senator Blanche Lincoln, who chairs the agriculture committee, earlier this month unveiled an aggressive draft bill to regulate derivatives that would require banks to spin off swaps desks if they are protected by federal deposit insurance or access the Federal Reserve discount window.
Posted at 10:35 AM in Banks, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Jon Menon and Andrew MacAskill, Bloomberg, April 30, 2010
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third- largest bank by assets, fell in London trading after first- quarter investment banking revenue dropped more than estimated.
Revenue at the Barclays Capital unit slumped 26 percent to 3.8 billion pounds ($5.8 billion) for the three months to March 31, missing the 4.9 billion-pound estimate of analyst Mark Phin at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. The shares declined the most in 12 weeks.
“We are skeptical about continued growth at Barclays Capital,” wrote Bruce Packard, a London-based analyst at Seymour Pierce, with a “sell” recommendation on the stock. Fixed-income bankers “have worked hard to perpetuate the scientific nonsense of everlasting, compounding growth.”
Posted at 10:26 AM in Barclays, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Reuters, The New York Times, April 28, 2010 Reuters - Bank of America named DuPont’s longtime chief executive, Charles Holliday, as its chairman on Wednesday. He succeeds Walter Massey, who retired from the board after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 72.
“Chad brings excellent perspective with experience as a chairman and chief executive of a prominent global business,” Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s chief executive, said in a statement. The announcement came hours after the bank concluded its 2010 annual meeting.
Posted at 10:06 AM in Bank of America, Current Affairs, Employee Activity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Catherine Rampell, The New York Times, April 28, 2010
Bonuses make up a much larger share of earnings for employees in the finance and insurance industry than in any other major service-providing sector, according to a Labor Department report.
The chart shows the percent of gross earnings — defined as the sum of wages, overtime, bonuses, shift differentials and paid leave — held by bonuses. In financial services, bonuses account for 6.5 percent of gross earnings; the percentage for the next highest bonus-getter is less than half as large (professional, scientific and technical services, at 2.9 percent).
Posted at 10:01 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The New York Times, April 29, 2010
The Swiss government put forward a threefold plan Wednesday to cap bonuses in the banking and insurance sectors as it sought to win support from the parliamentary opposition for an agreement with U.S. authorities about UBS client data, as well as for a broader banking overhaul in Switzerland.
The country took aim at what it termed “excessive salaries in bank and insurance companies,” proposing to regulate salaries in any financial institutions that required state aid; tax more heavily any compensation in excess of 2 million Swiss francs; and alter how it calculated taxable gains from stock options.
“There is a general need to prevent inappropriate compensation systems in the future and promote salary structures that have a positive impact on the long-term prospects of companies,” the government said in a statement.
Posted at 09:55 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Zachary R. Mider and Jason Kelly, Bloomberg.com, April 28, 2010
(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest private-equity firm, hired Felix Huang, a former executive at client American International Group Inc., for its corporate-advisory unit as it expands beyond buyouts.
Huang, a former restructuring executive at AIG, joined this month as a managing director based in the firm’s Menlo Park, California, office, said Christine Anderson, a Blackstone spokeswoman. New York-based Blackstone has been helping AIG restructure its business and sell units since 2008, when the U.S. government bailed out the insurance company to stave off a collapse.
Posted at 10:19 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
(Reuters) - An overhaul of financial regulation needs to include a paradigm shift away from self-regulation of some financial derivatives, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yves Mersch said.
Mersch wrote in a forward to the Luxembourg central bank's annual stability review that certain over-the-counter markets and certain derivatives products remained "in the margins" of regulation.
Posted at 10:15 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
eFinancialCareers News, April 6, 2010
We spoke with Jim Langan, partner and manager of the investment and financial services division at Winter, Wyman, a staffing firm headquartered in Waltham, Mass., that serves the New England and metropolitan New York markets.
What is the current climate for financial hiring in the Boston area? Is demand still improving, or stabilizing, or backtracking?
Hiring in the financial services sector in Boston has steadily improved within the first three months of 2010. The last two weeks of March in particular were the most active I have seen in 12 months and should point toward a very active job market in April and May.
Posted at 10:52 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Most of the largest U.S. financial institutions say they'll hire more new college graduates this year than last, and half look to hire at least 20 percent more graduates than last year, a new survey indicates.
The annual survey of HR managers, campus recruiters and corporate talent managers at 25 large banks and investment firms was conducted by 7city Learning, a provider of professional financial training and education with centers in London, New York and Singapore. Seventy-six percent said they expect more graduate hiring in 2010 than 2009, according to Financial News.
Posted at 10:50 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Matthias Rieker, The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2010
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--After surviving the financial crisis in strong shape, People's United Financial Inc.'s (PBCT) board abruptly decided it needs a new leadership.
Most banks needed to raise capital or at least preserve capital over the last two years. People's, of Bridgeport, Conn., is one of the few with the opposite problem. Analysts assume that Chief Executive Philip Sherringham didn't move fast enough to deploy capita, leaving the board impatient.
On Monday, the bank said Sherringham resigned "by mutual agreement" with its board. "The Board believes that new leadership is necessary to take the Company to the next level," Chairman George Carter said in the release. A spokeswoman said there was "no single catalyst" for the management change.
Sherringham couldn't immediately be contacted for comment.
Continue to full article
Posted at 10:42 AM in Banks, Current Affairs, Employee Activity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Takahiko Hyuga and Ambereen Choudhury, Bloomberg.com, April 27, 2010
(Bloomberg) -- Nomura Holdings Inc. executives attending the annual meeting for top managers in Tokyo this month witnessed an unprecedented event at the 84-year-old firm: The chief executive officer gave his address in English.
CEO Kenichi Watanabe told 550 managers that Nomura, which bought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Asian and European units in 2008, is changing into a global firm and urged them to strengthen cooperation among regions and units, said two people present who declined to be identified. Standing before a screen showing a jet emblazoned with the bank’s logo, Chief Operating Officer Takumi Shibata compared Nomura to flying.
“The airplane just left the ground last year,” Shibata said at the event at Tokyo’s Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa. “It needs to gain more altitude.”
Posted at 10:36 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)