Late Lunchtime Links: Pay rises for commodities traders; 100 new back office RBS jobs in Manchester

We have wonderful news if you work in physical commodities trading, or live in Manchester and are keen on clearing and settlements.

For the first, Reuters reports that Wall Street banks are increasing the pay and hiring of physical commodities professionals. This is not entirely unrelated to forthcoming US restrictions on commodities trading unless you own a physicals business, but appears to extend to Europe too. Reuters quotes headhunters who claim truly top US physical commodities people are now on >$5m, and that pay in Europe has risen 35% since January.

Separately, Manchester is getting excited about the prospect of a new operations centre for RBS's global banking and markets division. This will apparently result in the creation of 100 new jobs.

New City Minister: moderate on bonuses, but says banks could be subject to competition review. (Guardian)

Deutsche Bank has opened a 2nd office in St Petersburg. (EmergingmarketsME)

Citigroup group stock will go through the roof, soon. (Dealbreaker)

"Firms such as PIMCO with large credit staffs of their own can bypass,

anticipate and front run all three [rating agencies], benefiting from their

timidity and lack of common sense." ( El-Erian, via Einhorn, via Dealbreaker)

Ackermann is "intensive talks" about finding a successor. (Bloomberg)

Time to go and work for a private equity firm. (CNN)

Jon Moulton has bought a majority stake in Normal Broadbent's holding company. (Telegraph)

Sally Krawcheck and Tom Montag: like brother and sister. (CNBC)

The fantasy financial crisis of 2025. (The Crimson)