Lunchtime Links: It's official - a French bank favours the French
Among those employed by French banks, it's not uncommon to uncover gripes that Jerome and Jacque are treated more favourably than Jeremy and Julian. Now, those imputations have been imbued with truthfulness: someone's successfully sued Credit Agricole for favouring the French.
The Times reports that Michael Wardle, formerly the global head of interest rate derivatives exotics and hybrid risk management at Calyon, has been awarded 511k for race discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal.
The tribunal ruled that: "In the absence of any credible explanation for appointing the candidate with less relevant experience and knowledge, we are driven to the conclusion that he was the preferred candidate because he was French."
Wardle left Calyon in 2008 and now works at the FSA, where he's head of market risk and trading review. His case echoes a previous attempt by a British banker to sue Dresdner Kleinwort for discrimination on the grounds that he wasn't German. That case failed.
Samir Assaf, who's worked at HSBC for 16 years, most recently as head of global markets, is becoming head of the investment bank. (BusinessWeek)
Goldman trader used rough language. (Wall Street Journal)
JPMorgan's head of London coal trading has joined Citadel . (Finalternatives)
Warsaw's making a bid to be Central Europe's finance hub. (DealBook)
RBS staff spent 228k on Christmas parties. (Pestowire)
Those who run those banks acknowledge to me that around each star sit competent but not outstanding bankers, who are paid far too much relative to their genuine wealth-creating skills. (BBC)
An AIB spokesman said no bonuses were paid for the bank's performance in 2009 or 2010. (Irish Times)
An interview with Peter Johnson, Senior Admissions Manager, Masters in Finance at LBS. (Accepted.com)
Spain is all about the banks. (Alphaville)
Steve Schwarzman's wife is behind his Parisian adventure. (Observer)
Lifetime net income is doubled for those who take law and economics degrees. (The Times)
Carbon-fibre cycles are no faster than a second-hand old bike. (The Times)
Stay thin by imagining yourself eating food. (Gawker)
I was at a book launch last week and saw a man whom I know to be a banker. When somebody asked him what he did, he said that he was a dental mechanic. (The Times)
