Monday's Headlines: Hedge Funds Creating a Lot of Back Office Jobs

The hedge fund industry created 300,000 jobs, says its leading trade group. Eighty percent of the jobs were in North America, most at service providers such as administrators, lawyers and accountants. [WSJ]

Forty-seven percent of financial executives in the U.S. are set to hire employees in 2011, according to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey. [InsuranceNewsNet]

The five largest U.S. banks are poised to have two straight years of growth in investment banking and trading. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are all boasting solid fourth quarters, driven by equity underwriting, and a rebound in trading. [San Francisco Chronicle via Bloomberg]

Executives at the top investment banks have formed a secret society aimed at protecting their firms in the derivatives market. [CNBC via NY Times]