Lunchtime Links: Repeat after me - 'Deutsche bankers are NOT incredibly well paid'
There is much, much excitement today about pay at Deutsche Bank. Fortune declares Deutsche the 'king of the bonus pool', the Telegraph eulogises Deutsche's ginormous payments. CNBC goes there too.
Sadly, they are deluded.
As we have pointed out before, Deutsche is not a particularly enormous payer. It does not (usually) pay more than Goldman Sachs. Its bankers do not all live in large mansions in Highgate.
Deutsche's pay figures for the corporate and investment bank are misleading because a) they include its very generous redundancy payments and b) its headcount figures don't include a lot of people working in the back office.
Precisely how many people are omitted is suggested by the fact that there are 33,500 people at Deutsche Bank working in something called 'infrastructure functions,' none of whom appear to be paid anything.
If Goldman stripped out lots of its back office staff and distributed its entire compensation pool around front and middle office investment bankers only, it would look even more generous than it is. So would lots of other banks. Deutsche's pay per head figures are flattering. Like Hosni Mubarak's hair, they are also wrong.
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"When we look at ... what employees get by way of salary plus bonus, on average we did not go up ... we went down," said Anshu Jain, head of the corporate and investment bank. (Financial Times)
Blackstone is paying an average of $811k per head. (Blackstone)
Blackstone's footing is still uncertain. Profits in 2010 were heavily reliant on revenues that do not yet exist. (Financial Times)
Evercore wants to hire in Europe and is looking for 10-15 equity researchers
https://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-02-03/evercore-21010-results
Evercore's profits up 100%. (BusinessInsider)
MF Global is expanding its prop trading business. (BusinessInsider)
In the first nine months, MF Global reduced headcount by 11% and accrued just $153k per head. (MFGlobal)
Meredith Whitney wants to launch a ratings agency, hiring up to 650 analysts at an average salary of $225,000. (Fortune)
US regulators are pressing banks to include more "clawbacks" and "holdbacks" in traders' pay. (Financial Times)
Rothschild is no longer calling itself an investment bank. (Telegraph)
Gorman and his PR handlers are spending way too much time convincing people he's a serious CEO to compensate for what some on Wall Street believe is a serious lack of the right kind of experience to run a major investment bank. (Huffington Post)
One of next week's four big Russian IPOs has been suddenly pulled. (EveningStandard)
"We believe that breaking up banks would be a mistake. We need a strong banking system to help support the economy and growth," said John Cridland, CBI director-general. (Financial Times)
Citigroup's private banking unit plans to set up a social networking site exclusive to the offspring of Citi's very rich clients. (Financial News)
Merrill Lynch wife has contemplated divorcing her husband over his exercise habit . (Dealbreaker)
