eFinancialCareers

ANZ Bank’s new chief executive, former HSBC boss Mike Smith, has wasted little time in putting his personal stamp on the bank. With strong plans to extend ANZ’s domestic and international reach, Smith – who joined in October – has been tweaking the bank’s management ranks since arriving. Two recent appointments include former colleague Susie Babani to take the role of group general manager human resources, a position formerly known within the... Read more

Forget the sub-prime crisis, Australia’s bankers still expect to cash in with higher bonuses this year. Our survey of 20,270 global bankers found that 50.3% of those based in Australia expect to receive higher bonuses this year, with only 8.3% expecting their bonuses to be lower than the bumper payouts of 2006. 23% of Aussie respondents expected their bonuses to increase by less than 10%, and 10% expected bonuses to rise more... Read more

A high-profile case, which has embroiled ANZ in controversy, illustrates the danger of being misled about career prospects. Former head of institutional banking Steve Targett is seeking AU$2.1m in damages, after claiming the Aussie bank left him with the wrong impression about its financial health and his future prospects when he signed on in 2004. Targett is claiming that he left his AU$2.5m a year job with Lloyds TSB after being assured... Read more

Australia’s rising dollar has the potential to attract overseas finance professionals. The Aussie reached a 23-year high of US$0.90 last month – up a whopping 86% since 2001. Since the start of 2007 it’s also up around 9% against sterling and 5% against the euro. With the rising dollar making Australian jobs increasingly lucrative for international bankers, anyone would think Sydney might see an influx of people from the City of London,... 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

There are several advantages to working for Australia’s top investment bank – including the opportunity to take a degree programme run by a world-leading business school. Macquarie Bank has arranged for leading French business school INSEAD to provide a Masters programme for staff in its investment banking business. Ian Woodward, programme director for Macquarie’s new Master in Finance, says it’s something a bit special: “There are plenty of courses [run by other... Read more

With the Hang Seng breaking through 30,000 for the first time this month, now’s a good time for Aussie bankers to break into Asia. Andrew Valentine, from recruiter Jon Michel Executive Search, says, “Unemployment is low and regional GDP growth is outpacing the rest of the world, so demand for investment banking services and for skilled investment bankers is likely to continue.” “The advantage for Australian bankers is exposure to larger and... Read more

Which banks and bankers are suffering the most? No prizes for guessing… ACUTE PAIN 1. Merrill Lynch Share price: down 44% since January 2007. Bonus per head*: $181.3k, down 25% on 2006. Net profit for the first nine months of 2007: $1.9bn, down 61%. Redundancies: none announced so far, but exit of chief exec Stan O’Neal is imminent. 2. Bear Stearns Share price: down 38% since January 2007. Bonus per head*: $407.6k, down 20% on 2006. Net... Read more

Just when you fancied working in the City of London, the UK government plans to up the tax on overseas workers. Right now, Aussies living in the UK who are non-domiciled in the country are exempt from paying tax on income earned abroad (e.g. from renting out Sydney apartments). The proposed rules will require all ‘non-dom’ people in the UK who have been working in the country for seven years to either... Read more

How many people will Stan O’Neal cut following yesterday’s revelation that Merrill made third-quarter losses greater than the GDP of a small African state? Our reckoning is quite a few. O’Neal is not, after all, averse to a spot of staff hacking. As head of the bank in 2001 he initiated a programme that eliminated nearly a third of the bank’s staff, largely through voluntary redundancies. This time things look a... Read more