Lunchtime Links: German banks suddenly look somewhat less appealing
Ever since Obama announced TARP-related restrictions on banking pay and bonuses, European banks have seemed something of the place to be. Last month Josef Ackermann boasted that DB was ready to poach high performers from rivals, and today it emerged that Deutsche has hired a gaggle of Merrill corporate financiers in France, to add to the 12 FIG bankers it poached from Merrill last month.
Today, however, two pieces of news make German banks look rather less alluring. On one hand, it seems 250 Dresdner Kleinwort bankers are sufficiently enraged by Commerzbank's decision not to pay the bonuses that were allegedly promised to them, to bring a court case against the bank. On the other, Bloomberg reports that German chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for pay caps for managers at all German banks, not just those which have received money from the state.
Mega money at JPMorgan derivatives group (Bloomberg).
More reasons to work at JPMorgan (Bloomberg).
Ken Lewis confesses to making a mistake (Financial Times).
Ken Lewis's pay cut 60% (Bloomberg).
Your total compensation tumbles 99.8% compared with the year before, but you still come out with $350,000. (DealBook)
Blackstone added 320 people last year. (Financial News)
Guy Hands giving back past four years' carried interest. (Terra Firma).
Rebates are a big cause of the short term bonus culture. So let us end rebates. Make them illegal. Make them transparent. (Fintag)
Redundant hedgies get litigious. (Hedge funds review ).
City boss and his brothel of women workers. (Evening Standard)
Jim Rogers buys land, starts farming. (CNBC)
