Lunchtime Links: Yet another reason why London is losing out to Asia; how "stupid and arrogant" bankers threatened to "bring us all down"
Much of the focus over the last couple of days has been the debate over the damage the ICB recommendations could cause UK banks, but other regulations may still dent London's standing as a financial centre.
Bloomberg has suggested that certain banks - including HSBC, UBS and Nomura - are attempting to book as many trades as possible (up to 30%) through Singapore, Hong Kong and other light-touch jurisdictions in a bid to side-step onerous regulation in the UK, Europe and the US.
Much of this is an attempt to avoid the UK banking levy, as well as other financial transaction taxes. While there's nothing illegal in all this, it does of course mean that the UK is losing out in another example of regulatory arbitrage.
"It is really about trying understand where all the different regulatory pressures are going to squeeze the hardest and looking to see if there are more efficient ways of reorganizing the booking model and business model so as not to have too many restraints," Chris Matten, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers told Bloomberg TV.
Banks are likely to take differing approaches - some could set up a new subsidiary in Singapore or Hong Kong, others could book more trades through existing offices rather than a single global hub, while others could create a series of ring-fenced, fully-capitalised subsidiaries.
UBS has hired a new FIG head in bid to get back into the top ten (Financial News)
The best paying roles of the future (24/7 Wall Street)
"Stupid and arrogant" bankers threatened to "bring us all down", says Alistair Darling (Labour Uncut)
Secret Goldman note suggests that European banks need $1 trillion bailout (Wall Street Journal)
Ackermann dismisses calls for mandatory recapitalisation (Bloomberg)
Jefferies hires for new Asian push (Wall Street Journal)
It's also poached Goldman's co-head of leveraged finance (Bloomberg)
There will be no major UK bank shake-up until after the general election in 2015 (Financial Times)
French bank earnings estimates cut by 14-21% (Alphaville)
Financial firms are doing more to root out the behavioural biases of their employees
SEC chairman earned $57m during her time at Goldman Sachs (Bloomberg)
"The UK lives off London and would be so much poorer without it. Vince Cable's approach is going to put us back to the Stone Age. He is just hopeless and dangerous." (Telegraph)
Standard & Poor's has awarded some sub-prime mortgages AAA ratings (Bloomberg)
RBC Capital Markets makes high-yield hire (Financial News)
"Kelly was well liked and fairly visible. But a little bit of the Kelly magic was wearing off." (Financial Times)
If the AT & T deal fails, Goldman could soon be the number one M&A adviser ( Bloomberg)
JP Morgan, Greenhill, Evercore, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Citigroup stand to lose $150m in advisory fees if the deal falls through (Dealbook)
George Clooney will star in a Hong Kong financial forum later this month (Wall Street Journal)
Anyone who's anyone in London should have a subterranean pool (NY Times)
