Friday's Headlines: Finance Firms Say They're Really, Really Going to Hire Soon

Many financial services companies plan to start adding employees, according to a survey of 109 investment banking, private equity, venture capital, asset management and other firms, says Glassdoor.com. Nearly three quarters - 74 percent - predict hiring will improve within the next 12 months. [Glassdoor]

Citigroup will add at least 130 jobs in Asia as it bets on expansion in the Asian fund-management business. The hires will be in its securities and fund services group, which provides back and middle office services to money managers. [TheStreet]

How bad is the public's perception of Wall Street when Timothy Geithner spends a lot of time telling people he's not a Wall Street insider - specifically a Goldman Sachs Wall Street insider? [NY Times]

Hedge-fund icon Stanley Druckenmiller is quitting the business after three decades, telling investors he's worn down by the stress of trying to maintain one of the best trading records in the industry while managing an "enormous amount of capital." Druckenmiller told Bloomberg he's frustrated by his failure over the past three years to match returns that had averaged 30 percent annually since 1986. [Bloomberg]

After blundering through the financial panic, quantitative investment managers don't look so smart, and some investors are backing away from them. Though a "technological arms race is under way" to design smarter, faster trading systems, quants are struggling to explain how their models failed during the market's plunge in 2008 and early 2009. [NY Times]