Finance news in Australia – covering the financial job market, recruitment & career trends in the finance industry

Bankers, accountants and lawyers have been leading the recovery in the jobs market while shop assistants and truck drivers who resign are not being replaced. Detailed employment figures released yesterday show that the economic recovery is gathering strength, but some major sectors are still contracting. Employment in the finance sector, which was at the centre of the global downturn, has completely recovered, with the same 411,000 people employed now as... Read more

Macquarie has appointed Eric Schimpf as the new head of Macquarie Private Wealth, replacing Peter Coleman who left last year. Schimpf joins Macquarie from Merrill Lynch, where he held the role of regional managing director for the Private Banking and Investment Group. In the role he was responsible for Merryll Lynch’s ultra-high-net-worth clients in the southeastern part of the United States. (Money Management) Investment bank JPMorgan has lost its bid... Read more

A former Macquarie worker yesterday tearfully told the NSW Supreme Court of the intense pressure he said led him to conduct irregular trading, netting him about $3.6m. Oswyn De Silva said he was stressed because he was “being told to perform, how to cut my hair, told how to dress, being told I looked too young for the role”. (news.com.au) Wall Street boutique investment bank Greenhill & Co will buy Australian... Read more

A former Macquarie banker, under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for insider trading while he ran a $4.45bn fund, appeared for sentencing yesterday after pleading guilty to contempt of court. During the hearing yesterday in the NSW Supreme Court, it emerged that Oswyn de Silva had attempted to flee Australia to return to his native Malaysia to seek "urgent medical treatment", that he had abused cocaine, was... Read more

Macquarie Group, which made five North American acquisitions in 2009, may buy more US assets and add bankers servicing mid-sized companies to gain a larger slice of the world’s biggest investment-banking market. (Sydney Morning Herald) Shares in London interdealer broker Tullett Prebon have soared after the company confirmed it had received an approach and speculation swirled as to the identity of the approaching company. British newspaper The Daily Mail reported the... Read more

ANZ expects to have the bulk of regulatory approvals for last year's $US550 million acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland's businesses in Asia finalised over the next three months. The bank today said it had received regulatory approval to complete its acquisition of RBS' Singapore and Taiwanese businesses. (Business Day) NAB and Richard Branson's Virgin Money remain in the running for RBS assets in Britain as rival Banco Santander steps up... Read more

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is becoming a high-stakes player in Australia’s investment banking talent war. In its most recent hiring coup, the US firm poached 10 staff from Royal Bank of Scotland to boost its presence in Australian fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities. The bank is believed to have paid generously to get these bankers on board. “Most bases for senior people would be $300k plus, possibly up to $500k.... Read more

Job advertisements rebounded in February to their highest monthly increase in 11 years, as employers stepped up hiring plans. The total number of jobs advertised rose by 19.1 per cent in February, more than reversing an 8.1 per cent fall in January, according to the ANZ Bank's monthly survey. It was the best monthly result in the 11-year history of the series, ANZ said. (Sydney Morning Herald) The latest Manpower Employment... Read more

Firms such as JP Morgan, Macquarie, AMP Capital and Colonial, plus the Big Four Australian banks, are leading a renewed search for back-office staff. The increase in recruitment comes a few months after front-office hiring began to recover, which is inline which the theory that ops jobs only start flowing when the revenue generators are making enough money. But current demand is also linked to the severe cuts made to back-office teams... Read more

The Commonwealth Bank has duly delivered on its promise of super-charged profits for its latest half year with cash net profit hitting $2.94 billion – a 54 per cent increase on the corresponding period 12 months ago. (Sydney Morning Herald) Financial Planning Association CEO Jo-Anne Bloch has resigned to take up another senior position in the financial services sector. (The Australian) Banker and insurer Suncorp-Metway says its first half net profit will... Read more

Macquarie Group's shares slid after the company predicted full-year profit of more than $1bn that fell short of the amount analysts had been tipping. The investment bank today said second-half earnings could be up as much as 10 per cent over the first half as economic conditions around the world continue to trend back to normal. (Sydney Morning Herald) Inndustry consolidation has had a fundamental impact on the Australian life insurance... Read more

David Kiely, the Macquarie Wealth adviser who was sprung by a TV broadcast on Tuesday looking at photographs of scantily clad women, has been told he will keep his job. Macquarie said in a statement today it had completed an internal review of the events on February 2 and action had been taken after discussions with the employee. (The Australian) Rudd government's decision to withdraw the wholesale banking guarantee is betting... Read more

Macquarie Group has bought Luxembourg private bank Sal Oppenheim's research and investment banking operations. The moves follows Macquarie’s purchase of Sal Oppenheim’s derivatives business in December. The acquisitions are part of Macquarie plans to expand its investment banking operations in the US and Europe. (The Australian) Suncorp-Metway will come under increasing pressure from investors to update the market about its improving financial performance before its half-year results as analysts forecast a... Read more

It boosted its international headcount last year with a global acquisition spree, and this week it lured a Wall Street star to run its DCM team (not to mention that one of its bankers is now infamous on YouTube). So is Macquarie making a comeback as the aggressive, world-beating Aussie bank we’d all love to work for? Despite the recent flurry of headlines, you should think twice before seeing Macquarie... Read more

The major Australian banks have identified increased regulation as the greatest risk to the industry in the next year. (The Australian) A former ASB Bank investment banker has pleaded guilty to fraud charges involving nearly NZ$18 million. At Auckland District Court this morning, Stephen Gerard Versalko, 51, admitted three charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office after a three-month investigation. (New Zealand Herald) Trade unions and the finance industry want the federal... Read more

Gail Kelly, the Westpac chief executive, is taken aback by the political "anger and outrage" now being directed at these same banks and is fearful that Australia's well-performing banks could be caught up in the global regulatory backlash. (The Australian) A research paper, launched today by leading recruitment company Clarius, will claim the surplus of skilled workers that formed during the global financial crisis has started to recede at an alarming... Read more

Earnings forecasts for major Australian banks have been upgraded amid expectations they will escape the fallout from regulatory changes imposed on some of the world's biggest lenders. (The Australian) Wealth management firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has appointed three new advisory service staff in Melbourne who have all joined the firm from Commonwealth Private Bank. (Investor Daily) Macquarie Infrastructure Group fell as much as 13 percent in Sydney following a January 22... Read more

US President Barack Obama has proposed stricter limits on financial institutions' risk-taking in a new populist-tinged move that sent bank shares tumbling and aimed to shore up the President's political base. (Sydney Morning Herald) Fund manager Colonial First State has teamed up with a London firm to offer mum and-dad investors access to managed futures, once the preserve of institutional investors. (The Australian) AXA Asia Pacific says National Australia Bank has completed... Read more

Much of the publicity around the announcement of the National Australia Bank bid for AXA Asia Pacific last month centred on concerns about competition, since the bank would considerably increase market share should the deal go ahead. However, Leon Carter, the national secretary of the Finance Sector Union, said the Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should pay more attention to the repercussions for Australian jobs. (Money Management) AXA... Read more