eFinancialCareers

Australian banking executives are retiring in their droves, creating opportunities for younger bankers to fill their shoes. Macquarie Bank, for instance, has lost a clutch of senior types in recent months, including its deputy chairman, its executive chairman and its treasurer. Their exit was partly down to restructuring and partly down to a government decision to remove the limits on superannuation deposits this financial year – making now a good time... Read more

London’s calling – and Australians are answering. Walk into any London finance, law or accountancy firm and you’d think you were in Bondi. Research from London-based recruiter Joslin Rowe shows the supply of skilled financial professionals is outstripping demand in London with 10 jobs to every four candidates. It found that 25% of all corporate finance and M&A lawyers in London are Australians or New Zealanders, and says there are 5,000... Read more

Derivatives jobs in China’s financial markets are set to boom this year, with salaries in Shanghai already matching those in other Far Eastern financial centres. Buoyed by the new interest rate benchmark mechanism and the expected launch of China’s first index futures contract, expertise is likely to be drawn from Hong Kong and Singapore. Dennis Koh, managing partner of Goshen Staines Singapore, an executive search firm, says pay in Shanghai is... Read more

Babcock & Brown have taken the art of incentive payments to a new level. Bonus payments for senior executives often reach two thirds of total rewards, or possibly for the occasional individual. In 2006, however, Babcock appears to have established a new benchmark of at least 90% for its senior executives – and recruiters say other employers are taking note. The company’s annual report reveals that all the investment bank's senior... Read more

If you want a change of job, now would be a good time to go for it. Manpower’s Annual Talent Shortage Survey exposes the extent to which Australia’s finance firms are crying out for staff. It says 61% of Australian employers cannot find qualified staff to fill vacancies. And of the 10 most critical sectors, finance (at number 4) and engineering (at number 2) were the only professional sectors experiencing trouble:... Read more

Fluctuating stockmarkets might be fortuitous for equity strategists, who advise traders on the future direction of the market. But their star – in terms of jobs and pay – hasn’t risen yet. Edmund Gill, executive business director at recruiter Hays, says there is always demand for strategists, and the recent gyrations of global stock markets haven’t made much difference. "Everyone’s looking for direction – there is so much hunger for future... Read more

Tied in to your existing employer? You’re not alone. A survey conducted by Ernst & Young has found leading employers are opting to defer the payment of short-term incentives such as bonuses in a bid to keep their best executives for longer. The survey found that 40% to 50% of larger companies, including banks and financial services groups, were now likely to defer bonuses – which in the case of leading investment... Read more

Oz banks are tuning in to the need to woo different generations of staff in different ways. St. George Bank, one of the country’s largest retail banks, is among those pandering to generational idiosyncrasies. It recently unveiled an enhanced set of benefits tailored for its Generation X, Y and Baby Boomer employees. Who got what? For Generation X, said to be those born between 1961 and 1978, there was extended parental leave,... Read more

Professional women who have chosen to opt out of the workforce to have children have long wished they could ease themselves back into professional ranks through part-time or short-term consultancy work. It seems that employers in the financial services sector are finally coming to the party. Ben Derwent, managing director of recruitment firm Derwent Executive, says banks and accountancy firms, in particular, are looking to bring in people on a short-term... Read more

What makes working for Goldman Sachs (or Goldman Sachs JBWere) quite so lucrative? Here’s our verdict… 1. It makes more money. Net revenues per head in 2006 were US$1.4m (AU$1.8m). This compared to US$678k at Lehman Brothers, for example. At 43.7% as a proportion of revenues, compensation costs were lower than at most other banks on the Street (shareholders are not being fleeced). 2. It works on bigger... Read more

Do you want next year’s bonus ahead of time? Hiring banks are said to be increasingly willing to buy out the bonuses of the staff they’re hiring. Given that US banks have only just paid out their bonuses, it may be a little early in the year for US bank employees to have their bonuses bought out for the whole of 2007. But if you work at the likes of Mitsubishi... Read more

Australia’s banks are trying to make new recruits feel at home as quickly as possible, for fear of losing them to homelier rivals. It’s known as ‘onboarding,’ according to Trevor Bradley, regional director of the recruitment firm Chandler Macleod, and is intended to convince new hires they’ve made the right choice. How can you tell if you’re being onboarded? Bradley says the process is all about integrating new employees into an organisation’s... Read more

Macquarie Bank, Australia’s biggest recruiter in the banking and financial services sector over the last few years, doesn’t expect to slow down its hiring boom at all in 2007, although it does admit that competition for staff is toughening up. The Sydney-based bank has added another 1,200 staff in the past 10 months, taking its total to 9,400, nearly double the number of just three years ago. Its international numbers have quadrupled... Read more

With banks only recently dishing out big bonuses, the next downturn may be the last thing on your mind. But is this really wise? It wasn’t that long ago that economists were predicting there would be a slip in 2007, and some bankers may be wondering how long the good times will last. The word from recruiters is that if you’re on the debt side of the employment ledger, assessing credit and... Read more

‘Ask and you shall have’ is becoming the mantra for banking and finance employees, as major banking groups agree an increasingly broad range of perks in a tight labour market. The extended offer spans everything from hot-desking to home working, but is particularly focused on the requirements of new parents: increased maternity leave and 'baby' incentives – including gift certificates, share options, and straight cash – are all the rage. NAB, ANZ,... Read more

If you’re a derivatives professional, a move to Hong Kong could be good for both your career and your bank balance. “The learning curve is much steeper in Asia,” says Guarav Seithi, head of the Asian desk at London recruiter Huxley Finance. “If you’re a junior quant working in New York, London or Paris, you won’t get the same exposure or the same potential for rapid career growth that you get... Read more

It’s bonus time for many investment banks in Australia, and that means it’s poaching time as well. As the very top performers form a queue outside the Ferrari dealerships of Melbourne and Sydney – looking for ways of spending their AU$2m-plus bonuses, banking recruiters say others who might have been disappointed with their payment are more likely to be dusting off their CVs. “Around this time of the year, you’ll see... Read more