It pays badly, but would you now consider a role at Standard Chartered?
To many investment bankers, the prospect of working for Standard Chartered has never been overly appealing, largely because of its reputation for being prudent with pay. However, it is one of the few institutions still hiring, so is it now worth considering?
Standard Chartered has released its Q3 interim management statement this morning. As is always the case, it's light on detail, but it does say that even its wholesale banking division has posted single digit growth, with its corporate finance income beating the comparable period in 2010.
Last year was one of expansion for its wholesale banking division, with build outs in sales, trading and its financial institutions team. What's more, it says it is continuing to hire, having said in August that it expected to add 1,000 employees this year.
Despite increase in headcount, Standard Chartered pointed out that expenses were "well controlled and were broadly in line with the first half" in wholesale banking. Expenses in the division in the first half were $2.5bn, or a 9% increase on the same period last year, largely because of the investment in new employees.
City headhunters tell is that while there's no sign that Standard Chartered is eagerly picking up investment bankers expelled from other institutions, the fact that it's still recruiting presents an opportunity for it to secure some talent it would have otherwise struggled to attract.
The question is, however, whether it's tendency to pay at the lower end of the scale means it would be able to hold on to them once other firms start recruiting again.
There's evidence the bank does still lose out to better paying competitors in the good times.
In 2009, it lured ex-Merrill banker Kevin Smith for its oil and gas team, who was instrumental in bringing in some big ticket deals. However, in March, he left to head up the European M&A team at RBC Capital Markets - a bank notorious for offering generous pay packets.
However, if nothing else, Standard Chartered's prudent approach means it's a relatively safe organisation to work for. Most investment banks have been forced to role out large redundancies due unsustainably high operating costs, but chief executives in the UK continue to defend the need to pay bonuses to remain competitive.
