eFinancialCareers

Macquarie is breathing some life into a generally dormant Japanese financial recruitment market. The Aussie bank, which took on 100 new hires in the second half of last year, is continuing its recruitment drive. Andrew Low, Asia head of Macquarie Capital Advisers, comments: “Japan is becoming an increasing focus and we are pleased to be able to attract senior people to match the quality of the opportunities we are... Read more

Banks including JPMorgan continue to recruit in equity derivatives as the sector looks set to survive the credit crunch comparatively unscathed. JPMorgan’s Asian team has grown from five to 45 since 2003 and headcount will continue to rise to meet Indian and Chinese demand, according Ong Tsui Keng, the bank’s executive director for equity derivatives. Ong tells us: “The expansion came as a result of the need to cover... 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

What is it about ABN AMRO employees that’s so irresistible to Babcock & Brown (B&B)? The ASX-listed investment bank has poached ABN’s entire Indian M&A group, having nicked its infrastructure team 18 months ago. ABN staff might well be desirable, but this latest raid was motivated more by location: India. While outsourcing retail support roles to the sub-continent is common, we are now starting to see banks, including B&B... Read more

Aussie banks are on the prowl overseas, picking up choice hires because the Australian market is robust and financial services is short of candidates. Grant Chamberlain, Deutsche Bank’s deputy head of M&A in Australia, says the firm is finding it difficult to source candidates who live locally. Most of its interviewees are Australians living abroad. “We haven't had to spend a lot of time trying to convince foreign nationals to come out... Read more

Now may be a good time to get your CV to Deutsche Bank – especially if you work for Citigroup. A major recruitment drive is expected at Deutsche in Hong Kong as the German giant gears up for its third-quarter 2010 move to Kowloon’s International Commerce Centre. And Citigroup high fliers could be top of its hit list. Alice Liu, a director at search firm Pelham, says Deutsche has... 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

It’s left the finances of some of Australia’s biggest local governments in poor shape, but Lehman Brothers is adamant the Grange Securities fiasco and the credit squeeze won’t force an early exit from the domestic market. The global i-bank has grown its Australian staff by 50-60 over the past 12 months, according to Michelle Sprod, head of marketing at Lehmans. “We will continue to grow as the market dictates and... 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

Investment banks are coming up with innovative ways to keep some staff on their payrolls, even while they let go of others in the wake of the credit crunch. This inventiveness mostly takes the form of long-term stock grants, or measures that let banks defer cash expenses in hopes that revenue growth will pick up later on. They may not be popular but, with most banks facing a more... Read more

The slowdown in equity capital markets is taking a toll on the hiring activity of some of Wall Street's biggest names. UBS, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have all seen fees earned from equity and debt capital markets fall between 40% and 70% in the first three months of this year. And with fewer listings amid turbulent market conditions, investment banks in Asia, which had their most profitable... 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

Who'll buy ABN AMRO's Australian unit? And what will happen to its 700 local staff? With a reported AU$1bn price tag, and most banks struggling to find cash at the moment, sale advisers Lazard Carnegie Wylie certainly have their work cut out. Analysts regard ABN AMRO’s mergers and acquisition division as one of the key strengths of the local unit, and say any buyer will likely be keen to retain as many... Read more

It's not looking good if you fancy landing a job in the Australian financial services market. The Aussie banking sector job market is floundering, according to the most recent monthly instalment of the Olivier Job Index. Report author Bob Olivier, a director of recruiter Olivier Group, attributes the poor results – down 5.12% in February – to the credit crunch, interest rate rises and the stock market sell-off. “Sub-prime write-offs have hurt... 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

Forget US business schools, a new study suggests MBAs from China see the biggest boost to their earnings once the course has finished. The Financial Times’ 2008 MBA report found that alumni from Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and Beijing’s China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) land the biggest salary increases upon graduation – 177% and 157% respectively. By comparison, graduates from a big name like the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School... 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

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

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