eFinancialCareers

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

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

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

2007 ended badly, and 2008 may well start the same, but this year will be better for some things than others. 2008 will be a good year for… Ops jobs Junior and more menial roles may be heading to Asia, but recruiters say there’s still going to be ample demand for senior banking operations staff in Australia. “People with 10 years-plus operations experience, who want to broaden their experience, will have plenty of... Read more

Losses of $13.7bn aren’t a great look for UBS, especially with some analysts predicting more write-downs in 2008. Globally, jobs at the Swiss-based bank are on the line, with 1,500 cut at the investment bank in the months leading up to Christmas, and the possibility of more to come. Does this include Australia, where UBS ranked number one as the leading M&A advisor in 2007? Apparently not: the official word is that... Read more

There's more to the Middle East than sovereign wealth funds. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have made headlines in the past few weeks, thanks to the hyperactive investments of their sovereign wealth funds, which have helped several international banks out of a sticky sub-prime situation. But there’s more to the region than state investments. International banks are also present – and hiring. Macquarie opened a Dubai office around two... Read more

Stock markets have further to fall, Bank of America’s making redundancies, and recruiters say some banks are already scaling back Asian hiring plans. Reuters reports that Bank of America is scaling back its DCM business in Asia Pac and making around 15 people – mostly structurers and originators – redundant. After steep falls of 20% or more from last year's peaks, many equities now look cheap. But even after the Federal Reserve's dramatic “emergency”... Read more

Regardless of market uncertainty, there are several reasons why banks in Asia should keep hiring. And they are…. Talent shortages Matthew Hoyle, Asia Pacific director of headhunter Matthew Hoyle International, says: “There is still a tremendous shortage in the five to nine years' experience bracket across nearly all divisions, due to SARS and the Asian Crisis. No one was trained and hardly anyone hired during that period.” China Mainland Chinese banks have huge... Read more

Senior women in Australia earn 50% less than their male counterparts, according to a Federal Government report. Is the same true in banking? No – at least not according to Bob Olivier, a director at the Olivier Recruitment Group in Sydney. He says the report’s findings astonished him. “My experience is that clients won’t offer a job to Julie rather than Steve to save on salary. It might be that if... 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

There are signs that Australia’s appetite for banking talent isn’t quite what it was. According to the latest Olivier Internet Job Index, banking and finance was one of the slowest growing sectors in the past 12 months, dropping 1.45% in January. Is the sky falling in on the banking recruitment market? Bob Olivier, the report’s author, and director at Olivier Recruitment Group, says he’s not convinced: “We’re putting it down to interest... Read more

Are accountants allergic to Australia? Given the proportion of its 47,000 accounting professionals who’ve left the country, you might just think so…. According to Sheena Frenkel of the Aus Institute of Chartered Accountants, 14% of Australia’s accountants work offshore, 7% of them in the UK. As ever, the impetus for heading somewhere else is cold hard cash – both when they’re overseas and when they return. Cameron Heaney of recruiter... Read more

Financial control, largely staffed by qualified accountants, is emerging from the shadows, as the bulge bracket tightens its collective belt in the wake of billion-dollar write-downs. Banks in Singapore have their sights set on ensnaring cost controllers from the Big Four accountancy firms. Think strategic partner, not number cruncher. Steve Parkes from Michael Page International explains why the geeks are suddenly chic: “The image of these people is on the... Read more

Global firms are beefing up their Australian debt restructuring teams as recruitment heats up. While local commercial banks still dominate restructuring recruitment, foreign i-banks are building their teams and should have “real numbers” in 12 to 18 months, says Toby Aikins, a consultant at Jon Michel Executive Search. Goldman Sachs announced plans last month to set up a restructuring group in Sydney, while Morgan Stanley has hired Ben Babcock from... Read more

The credit crunch and the threat of international fraud are bringing forensic accountants out of the shadows in Asia. These financial sector detectives are becoming an increasingly popular choice for compliance roles at banks in Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong firms are hiring forensic accountants for jobs in compliance, risk and anti-money laundering, according to Nicholas Neal, managing director at recruitment company Optimum. “China is creating demand for... Read more