eFinancialCareers

Want to work somewhere else? Seems like banks are only too happy to oblige. It's all part of the war (and we're talking brutal hand-to-hand combat here) for Australian finance talent. OK, so Australia is short of financiers, but banks' thinking seems to be that they'd rather put someone out to pasture somewhere else for a few years than see them skip the fence to work for a rival. Erica Burmeister,... Read more

Bankers around the globe are apprehensive about losing their jobs. Not in Australia. We asked people visiting our sites to rate their chances of involuntarily losing their job in the next 24 months on a scale ranging from "negligible" through to "very high". Almost half of Aussies polled – 49% – said that their chances of being shown the door before mid-2009 were "low" or "negligible". In Asia, Europe and the... Read more

If you're a banker looking for work in Australia, now is the time to be doing it. But accountants should stay put. According to the Olivier Internet Job Index, the number of banking jobs advertised on the net rose 10.3% in the last month – and 43.14% in the last 12 months. This compares to an increase across all sectors of just 1.18% in the last month, and 38.96% in the... Read more

Senior private bankers are in short supply, and banks are turning to juniors to fill the gaps. This is good news for anyone who hopes to get a foothold in the private banking industry, as normally private banking is a very senior, strategic job (AU$300k plus bonus). "It is a real struggle to find people," says James Wheaton from recruiter Michael Page. "There is such a shortage, banks are even targeting... Read more

There’s nothing better than cash in the hand – or at least a big fat bonus. A survey just conducted by Hays found that two thirds of respondents prefer a high cash component in their salaries these days over non-cash benefits. That compares with 42% who said they preferred cash when the survey was last conducted in April 2006. Matthew Gowan, senior manager of Hays Banking, says the candidate shortage has resulted... Read more

Will Barclays acquire ABN AMRO or won't it? Even if it does, Australian jobs are likely to be unaffected. ABN AMRO is by far the bigger of the two banks in Australia and New Zealand, with about 700 people on the ground. Barclays, by contrast, has fewer than 100 employees, mainly spread between Sydney and Melbourne. There's little overlap between the two in terms of operations. ABN's primary focus is on corporate... Read more

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

International and Australian institutions are looking to boost their private banking activities in Australia. Saying so is the easy part – actually finding people to fit their expansion plans is proving to be another matter altogether. The Australian private banking industry is dominated by European and American names such as UBS, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, along with the big four Australian banks, NAB, CBA, ANZ and Westpac. But... 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