And 2010 was an unfortunate year for...

While 2010 was a good year for many, that goodness was not ubiquitous. Some people and things had a more unfortunate 12 months than others.

Here's where the badness of 2010 flocculated:

1) Big cash bonuses

2010 was the year in which the big cash bonus died a painful death at the hands of Arlene McCarthy and the European Union. As of January 1st 2011, any 'risk taker' earning a bonus over 500k in the City of London will receive just 20% of it in cash. After tax, and assuming they're a 50% tax payer, they'll receive just 10%.

Another 20% of the 2010 bonus must be held in shares or share related instruments for an unspecified period likely to be as long as 18 months. In the worst possible outcome, it's possible that this 20% will attract an upfront tax charge, which will need to be paid out of the cash element, thereby wiping out the cash bonus entirely.

The remaining 60% of that 500k+ bonus must be deferred equally over three years.

Big cash bonuses RIP.

2) Commodities at JPMorgan

Low volatility meant a lot of commodities businesses had a nasty time towards the end of 2010, but none had so nasty a year as JPMorgan's.

In the past few months, conspiracy theorists have been floating the notion that JPMorgan has been massively shorting silver, allegedly on behalf of the Federal Reserve. This has led to calls to 'Crash JPMorgan, Buy Silver!'.

Even if this comes to nothing, 2010 was horrible for commodities at JP. In July, coal trader Chan Bhima reportedly lost $130m shorting coal in a rising market.

In August, Blythe Masters, head of commodities at JPMorgan resorted to a conference call confessing that they were 'significantly below plan' and claiming that there were, "too many banks chasing too little volume and margins have compressed."

Adding insult to injury, 10% of JPMorgan's commodities traders were made redundant following the acquisition of RBS Sempra. And JPMorgan's former head of coal trading took refuge in Citadel in December.

3) Prop traders

It was a confusing year to be a prop trader in an investment bank. Despite claims that the Volcker Rule was as permeable as woollen glove, US banks fell over themselves to appear to adhere to the spirit of the regulations - even in Europe.

JPMorgan said in September that it was closing its prop businesses, and then moved them into its asset management business.

Morgan Stanley lost lots of its prop traders to Bluecrest and was later said to be thinking of spinning off its prop trading unit into a separate company.

Goldman Sachs sold some of its prop traders to KKR (thereby sparking the revelation that they weren't that great anyway), let some of them move into its asset management business, and saw others branch out on their own.

Some displaced prop traders were fine. Others weren't. Hedge funds didn't necessarily want them.

4) The secret culture that is at Goldman Sachs

It wasn't a good year for the enigmatic place that is supposed to be Goldman Sachs. First of all, the Abacus case shone a light on the nature of the Goldman Sachs self appraisal, which turned out to be predictably all about bigging oneself up as much as possible and claiming credit for any achievement occurring within a 300 foot radius.

Secondly, Goldman was struck with a detailed discrimination case which included lengthy descriptions of its culture (admittedly dating back to 2005) and made it sound like a men-only golf club. One of the plaintiffs had her case dismissed, possibly due to a settlement, but the genie that was secrecy at Goldman was out of the bottle and floating freely.

5) Michael Geoghegan

Michael Geoghegan spent a long time becoming CEO of HSBC. He joined in 1973 as a trainee and spent 37 years there, latterly as chief executive, where he got to move to Hong Kong with 800k a year of benefits in kind to do up a home overlooking Hong Kong Harbour.

However, before he even got to move in to his new place, Geoghegan left HSBC unexpectedly. Allegedly it had something to do with not wanting to work with John Thornton, who was going to be chairman. However, Geoghegan denied this.

Freed from running a bank, he is now committed to getting fit.

6) Jérôme Kerviel

If 2010 was a bad year for Michael Geoghegan, it was an abjectly miserable year for Jérôme Kerviel. Having lost his court case against SocGen, Kerviel came away with a €4.9bn debt to his former employer, increasing at a rate of €87k a day.

7) Europe

Needless to say, it was not a good year for Europe, or for banks' revenues in Europe. Following the Greek debt crisis in April and May, European investment banking revenues at Citigroup and JPMorgan plummeted.

Anyone with the misfortune to work at an Irish investment bank had a particularly tempestuous time, with both jobs and bonuses subject to sudden evaporation.

The European situation looks unlikely to improve in 2011. The danger is that it will suppress banking revenues and curtail hiring.

8) Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Measured in terms of the share price alone, 2010 was not at all a happy year for Bank of America.

Between mid-April and the end of December, the bank's share price fell more than 50%. Over the year as a whole, Citigroup's share price rose nearly 30%.

Bank of America's year wasn't made any better by speculation that it was next in line to be outed by Wikileaks in 2011, possibly for untoward goings on related to US mortgage foreclosures.

None of this affected the investment bank directly, but it was not good news for anyone paid in the bank's stock.

9) Big hedge funds in London

2010 was not a good year for hedge funds, particularly large ones. First, there was the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, finally adopted by the European Parliament on November 11th 2010, and widely seen as a bad thing by the hedge fund industry on the grounds that it will increase compliance costs, impose pay restrictions, and make it difficult for non-EU investors to access EU funds.

On top of this, jobs disappeared at London's biggest hedge funds. In November, Financial News reported that jobs at London's largest hedge funds had fallen 25% at large and medium sized hedge funds during the year, from 1,288 to 979.

Further losses were expected at Man Group, which was said to be cutting 180-200 jobs in October following its acquisition of GLG.

10) Macquarie Europe

Finally, it was not a pleasing year for Macquarie in Europe. The departure of its EMEA CEO was compounded by rumours of bonus discontent, the exit of many people it hired/acquired at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, and then redundancies - although the latter were said to apply mostly to secretaries.