Lunchtime Links: Where to be based if you want a cash bonus; VTB might hire you
As the Financial Times reported last week, US banks appear to have begun deferring 60-80% of bonuses for their senior executives.
Bankers in the UK and Europe can be forgiven a moment of schadenfreude, after all their bonuses are also deferred - by as much as 60%, with half of the remaining 40% cash payment delayed too. However, while US compensation rules apply only to 'senior executives,' European compensation rules apply to all 'code staff' (as defined here). This doesn't seem enormously fair, and someone has now noticed.
Bloomberg says the Swiss Financial Stability Board (FSB) has apprehended that, "banks in the European Union face more stringent pay and bonus rules than rivals in North America and Asia, putting them at a disadvantage in attracting talent."
The FSB's report includes a helpful table (page 44) for anyone contemplating bonus-related-regulatory arbitrage. It points out that compensation is still overwhelmingly cash-based in China and that India and South Africa have done nothing to implement its bonus recommendations yet (but are due to do so soon).
Recognition that the rules governing bonuses in Europe and the UK are already harsh may help see off pressure from Michel Barnier, the EU financial services commissioner, who wants to make harsher still. Then again, it's worth bearing in mind that the rules didn't make a huge difference last year. Several US banks in London defined a comparatively small percentage of their employees as code staff and continued to pay a lot of 2010 bonuses in cash.
Separately, if you really want a job soon, Russian bank VTB will maybe hire you. It said this week that it wants to recruit
'100 bankers' outside Russia in the next 18 months. This week, it emerged that it had hired
Philip Hamilton from Goldman Sachs to run trading and sales operations for foreign exchange, credit, loans and rates out of its Cornhill office.
Top earners at some of the world's biggest banks are still taking home as much as 96% of their pay in the form of an annual bonus. (Financial Times)
Man who left Merrill Lynch in London to join Evercore in 2007 is going back to BAML. (Bloomberg)
Citigroup is launching a new electronic derivatives platform. (Financial News)
The European Banking Authority's board of supervisors has approved in principle the idea that banks should be made to raise their core tier one capital ratios - the key measure of financial strength - to 9%. (Financial Times)
A 90% return is now needed to bring Paulson's flagship Advantage Plus fund back to its level at the beginning of the year. (Financial Times)
Tips for laid off Wall Street losers. (Gawker)
The hottest people at occupy Wall Street. (Observer)
"I work 60+ hours a week with no guarantee of a paycheck. I didn't blame Wall Street when I couldn't find a living wage job or make it as a musician." (Economix)
My Blackberry is not working. (YouTube)
