eFinancialCareers

Australia’s private equity scene has taken a breather over recent months, in line with global financial markets. Likewise, the private equity jobs scene is also having a quiet spell at the moment, according to recruiters, with the biggest activity on the cards likely to be from private equity firms shedding staff, rather than hiring. But it seems that even if some staff are lost from the big firms, there’s still enough... Read more

At a time when financial jobs are being axed around the world, Dubai is still proving to be a recruitment oasis for those willing to work in the Middle East. The lure of high-paid, tax-free work is proving attractive for many Australian bankers, who are moving into an array of senior roles in investment banking. Advertised jobs are offering packages upwards of US$100k tax-free, including roles for researchers, finance directors,... Read more

The AU$18.6bn merger plan announced this month between Westpac and St George looks destined to lead to big job cuts. Experts expect thousands of jobs to be axed as the banks integrate their operations and reduce overlaps across different divisions, as well as at the branch level. Toon Van Beeck, senior analyst with industry research group IBISWorld, estimates mergers and takeovers in the banking sector will result in the loss of... Read more

It’s probably the best-kept secret in Australian banking circles right now. Just how big will Macquarie Bank’s profit be when it reports its annual results on 20th May, and will employee bonuses rise, fall or remain the same as last year? The bonus question has just about everyone stumped, with recruiters having little if anything to go by, except Macquarie’s own recent forecast that its full-year earnings will be up about... Read more

The official line out of ANZ at the moment is that it’s conducting an internal review of its securities trading processes and practices, following its involvement in the Opes Prime shares debacle. Unofficially, the bank is known to be wielding the axe internally as it looks to restructure some of its operations and clean out non-performing staff. ANZ Bank’s head of corporate affairs, Paul Edwards, confirmed that four ANZ employees had been... Read more

In risky times, it’s hardly surprising that financial institutions are going to town on risk specialists – particularly counterparty risk analysts who can help them ascertain whether the hedge funds and other clients they’re doing business with are liable to go under. “There has been increased interest but it’s been hard to get really good people in the counterparty space,” confirms Luke Heath, managing director of Chandler Heath. One player said to... Read more

When it comes to prospecting for investment bankers, it seems there’s plenty of activity under way in the Australian mining sector, and much of it remains focused in Melbourne. As the home of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, Rio Tinto and others, it makes sense that any recruitment of bankers with a mining focus is happening in the southern Australian capital. This helps explain why Citigroup has recently relocated its metals... Read more

Wholesale redundancies don’t seem to be on the agenda right now for Australia’s major and regional trading banks, or for most of the investment banks. That’s the word from senior recruiters, although the marketplace is still full of downsizing rumours, including one that Bank of America will scale back from a trading bank to a branch office, and that Citigroup will slice into its local headcount. Edmund Gill, director of Hays... Read more

Wall Street is definitely not the flavour of the month at the moment, especially when it comes to investment banking. It’s not really surprising, therefore, that many Australians working in the Big Apple are checking out their job options for fear they may not have a job in the very near future. According to Adam Gillibrand, Australian-based executive director for US recruitment and consulting firm Options Group, an increasing number of expat... Read more

Managers at Babcock are busy informing their minions how much they'll earn in bonuses this year. It should be (very) good news. The investment bank announced last month that its net profit had jumped 58% in the latest year, to AU$407m, and that its bonus pool had risen an impressive 38.5%, to AU$573m. Based on the bank’s 1,435 headcount at the end of December, the average bonus per employee will be AU$400k,... Read more

Société Générale has confirmed the closure of its Australian securitization department in Sydney. It’s not a good sign if you’re a securitization pro. “The Securitization Department in Australia (only) was closed down on 23 January 2008. No other business lines in Australia were affected. The majority of the securitization team have been redeployed to other areas of the bank,” SocGen communications manager Sally Trenchard-Smith told us. “The department was closed due to... Read more

Recruitment may have cooled in some areas, but equities analysts are still hot. Even better, plenty are prepared to switch jobs. Patrick Hodgens, head of equities at Macquarie Investment Management, says market volatility has increased the flow of equities analysts looking for new positions – just 12 months ago he says they were much harder to find. “We’ve had quite a bit of success in building the team up, whereas a year... Read more

In the wake of Société Générale’s €4.8bn trading scandal, risk managers are set to become hot property. SocGen’s crisis has reopened some old wounds in Australia. At NAB's annual shareholders' meeting this month, chairman Michael Chaney was forced to revisit his bank’s AU$360m foreign currency trading scandal of 2002-03 . “When something like the SocGen incident occurs, banks like ours get as much information as they can about the incident from... Read more

The jobs market for proprietary traders at the moment is about as volatile as the share market they are working in from day to day. In the light of investment banks such as Citigroup having made several prop traders redundant, and UBS having racked up large trading losses, experts warn that more job cuts are on the way. Tim McGowen of Fortitude Capital, who has managed proprietary trading books for some of... Read more

It’s often the case that when senior management changes occur, the after-effects can be felt through the organisation for some time to come. It’s too early to tell what sort of executive after-effects might develop following the departure of Macquarie Bank’s long-standing CEO Alan Moss in May, but most believe it will be pretty much business as usual on the recruitment front when new boss Nicholas Moore steps in. Macquarie expects to... Read more

Who’s hiring in Victoria? Big banks, according to recruiters. Sadly, the spokeswomen for both Melbourne-based ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank were unwilling to comment on their organisation’s hiring needs for 2008, but recruiters assure us both banks are staffing up in Melbourne during the first quarter of this year. “We have seen a big increase in demand for business development and relationship management staff due to new sales budgets that have... Read more

With industry jargon increasing as quickly as the average carbon footprint, Australia’s major banks are embracing corporate social responsibility in a big way. By building up dedicated CSR teams, big banks like Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB) and ANZ are moving to adopt processes that are seen – both internally by employees and externally by suppliers and investors – as ethical, transparent, environmentally friendly and sustainable. NAB, through its institutional banking and... Read more

Following suggestions that it's about to report record first half profits, some analysts are wondering if Sydney-based Macquarie investment bank can keep up the pace. Macquarie, also known as the millionaire’s factory because of the massive salaries earned by its executives, announced last month that it expects to achieve a half-year profit of around AU$1bn when it reports in November. This will be down on its AU$1.46bn record result for the... Read more