Late Lunchtime Links: When expats exit Asia

Despite the devastation in coastal Japan and the nightmare surrounding the Fukushima nuclear plant, banks in Tokyo are open for business.

The Wall Street Journal reports that 16 foreign banks in the city are open for business as usual. Bloomberg says JPMorgan and Credit Suisse are allowing employees to work from home and that Goldman Sachs and BAML have no plans to move employees out of the city. This is despite the French government advising its citizens to leave.

Elsewhere in Asia, expats are leaving for very different reasons. The Financial Times reports that Owen Thomas. Morgan Stanley's head of Asia, is moving back to New York after only three years for reasons related to his children's schooling.

Thomas's US retrenchment follows a similar move earlier this year from Michael Evans, Goldman Sachs' Asia chairman, who was also understood to be angling for a job which would allow him to spend more time in New York. The moves raise questions over Asia's long term appeal for some Western bankers.

Vikram Pandit is pushing into emerging markets precisely as investors are pulling back. (BusinessWeek)

Hit bankers with 2bn tax on bonuses and cut VAT on fuel, says Labour. (Telegraph)

Senior Deutsche M&A banker who left to become head of development at a technology firm will now be joining Citigroup...(Economic Times)

...after he's climbed Everest. (CityAm)

Anshu Jain earned more than Josef Ackermann last year. (BusinessWeek)

Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland: "There is a big objective reason why you pay people the way you do in banking: this is a serious professional job where people handle almost unimaginable amounts of money." (Financial Times)