eFinancialCareers

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 good law degree can go a long way, especially in investment banking. This was underscored recently when Credit Suisse appointed former Commonwealth Bank of Australia general counsel and Freehills partner John O'Sullivan as chairman of its local investment banking unit. And transition from law into banking is not just happening at the top end. Recruiters are noting that many candidates for banking jobs at lower levels also have legal qualifications. “'It's quite... 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

Following suggestions that it's about to report record first half profits, some analysts are wondering if Sydney-based Macquarie investment bank can keep up the pace. Macquarie, also known as the millionaire’s factory because of the massive salaries earned by its executives, announced last month that it expects to achieve a half-year profit of around AU$1bn when it reports in November. This will be down on its AU$1.46bn record result for the... Read more

A Sydney-based headhunter warns the chief reason employers are missing out on premium i-banking talent is their own tardiness. Dudley Levell, director of financial services IT recruitment specialist Finrecruit, reports, “There is plenty of competition for high quality talent in Sydney and some employers are missing good candidates because they are slow to provide feedback on interviews or CVs.” If banks want to snare the right employee, they need to go about... Read more

Don’t look now: there are some signs that the US sub-prime mortgage malaise has spread to the Australian market for financial services jobs. Private equity firms and corporate advisers were hit hard with a 9% fall in job advertisements during September, according to the Olivier Internet Job Index. The index also showed ads on the Internet for banking jobs fell by 10.5% in September. Report author Bob Olivier, a director at the Olivier... Read more

Sustainable responsible investment (SRI) is getting hot along with the planet. Shame about the jobs. The latest AMP Capital SRI Median Study says the SRI median outperformed the benchmark ASX 200 index by more than 1.5% over one year, and 2% in the two years to 30 June 2007, returning a healthy 30.2% in one year, 26.7% over three years and 19.3% over five years. Little surprise, therefore, that investors are marginally... Read more

The fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage débâcle continues to be felt, with news of redundancies of up to 1,500 employees at Europe’s biggest bank, UBS. Adding to concerns, this announcement was closely followed by the sacking of two senior US executives at Merrill Lynch. The sackings have sent shock waves through the industry. However one City-based headhunter says it may be premature for those in Australia’s finance industry to hit the... Read more