Lunchtime Links: JP Morgan has hired over 1,200 people for its investment bank since Q1, but looks set to pay them less

JP Morgan is the first major investment bank to report its second quarter results, in what is generally expected to be a gloomy season for most and...it's relatively positive.

From a hiring perspective, amid ongoing reports of redundancies and/or hiring freezes at most banks, JP Morgan is emerging as an active recruiter. Headcount is up by 1,222 on Q1 (at 27,716 people globally) and over 1,400 since this point last year.

Even better, considering this morning's carnage, Jamie Dimon has said there will be no "large scale" job cuts.

Pay, however, isn't looking great. The $2.56bn accrued for compensation in Q2 works out as $92.5k per head, compared to $111.2k at this point in 2010 (or a 12% drop). Measured up against Q1, when compensation was a healthy $124k per employee, it looks even meeker.

JP Morgan has helpfully stripped out the $550m it set aside for the UK bonus tax at this point last year to make for accurate cost income ratio comparisons. Compensation as a percentage of revenues was 35% in Q2, compared to 46% last year and 40% in Q1.

If you include the bonus tax, though, this ratio was 37% in Q2 2010.

Total investment banking income was $2.05bn, which is a 13% drop compared to Q1 2011, but better than the $1.38bn it made during the same period in 2010.

Fixed income trading, which is expected to have taken a hammering everywhere, has performed better than expected. At $4.28bn, revenues are down 18% on the first quarter, but still 20% up on last year. Most analysts were anticipating a 40% slide in fixed income trading revenues in the second quarter.

EMEA has continued to look healthy compared to other regions. Revenues declined by 4% on Q1 to $2.4bn, but are still up 60% year on year. North America revenues slipped by 11% since Q1, while Asia-Pac tumbled by 32%.

It also looks like a good time to be working in JP Morgan's advisory division, where fees increased to $601m in Q2, up 40% since Q1 and 69% since this point in 2010.

UBS is set to sack 5,000, Credit Suisse will cut 1,000 (Reuters)

Risk managers are bringing sexy back (Financial Times)

JP Morgan has named Larry Slaughter as its new North American investment banking head (Financial News)

Moelis & Co has hired a co-head of investment banking in Dubai (Dealbook)

Ring-fencing retail banks would hit UK competitiveness (Times)

Fidelity is expanding in Asia (Asian Investor)

Bankers using whistleblowing laws to bag bigger bonuses (Times)

Do not eat a Rhino or Giraffe if you're Jewish (Bloomberg)