Volcker Plan Won't Dampen Near-Term Recruitment of Traders

Leading financial institutions will continue hiring traders after the White House called for barring banks from proprietary trading and alternative investments, a recruiter says, because those two areas fell out of favor among bulge-bracket banks a while ago.

Among banks, "neither of these areas are fast-growing," says Richard Lipstein, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search. For instance, he says Barclays Capital, since taking over Lehman Brothers' U.S. businesses in 2008, has been less active in prop trading than Lehman was. Morgan Stanley, after ramping up its prop desks several years ago, later pulled back.

"I don't see a lot of hiring going on in the relevant companies to any great degree," says Lipstein." So I don't see this having any great impact (even) if you assume the bill is going on to passage."

He also notes the measure faces political hurdles to passage, including a Supreme Court decision last week allowing corporations to spend freely on election campaigns.