The News: Investment Banks Return to Campus Recruiting

Banking's strategic talent pipeline is alive and well, and banks have returned to pumping it after an 18-month hiatus.

After interviewing dozens of MBA students and career services officers around the U.S., the New York Times reports:

With banks climbing out of the recession, more business students across the country are finding banking jobs and internships, enrolling in finance clubs and going on class trips to Wall Street.

At University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, for instance, 20 percent more banks are interviewing on campus this year and the number of job offers is up 33 percent from a year ago. At the University of North Carolina, the number of investment bankers visiting campus is up 67 percent. And twice as many Duke University students have landed investment banking internships for this summer compared with last year. Many more students are applying to banks and participating in Duke's Week on Wall Street trip.

Darden student Kwame Yankson says he found it "a completely different experience" seeking work this year compared with last. A year ago, after about 15 banks passed on his bid for summer internships, he ended up working for an education nonprofit organization. This year he quickly snagged a permanent job offer from Wells Fargo. He adds:

The banks this year kept saying, 'It's a good year,' 'We just approved a lot of hiring,' 'The market is clearing up.'

Tracy Handler of the MBA Career Services Council (which represents career services officers at business schools) acknowledges that signs of recovery are "modest," but says "business schools are looking ahead and seeing a light at the end of what is now a pretty short tunnel."

New bankers aren't oblivious of the masses' continuing anger at their profession: One Duke MBA student who's secured an M&A job at Bank of Amerrica Merrill Lynch says he and his classmates joke about telling non-finance types they're not investment bankers but bank tellers.

Job Market Stabilizes for Business Students

[NY Times]

Lombard Odier boosting institutional presence [Pensions & Investments]

Windfall Unlikely To Spur Bonus Supertax Repeat [FT]

Nomura Chief Warns On UK Taxes On Banks [FT]

Absorbing the Blows That Buffet Europe [NY Times]

Next-level Networking [Metro]