Morning Coffee: UBS is hiring 24 senior bankers, paying them up to 50% less. Ruined 40 year old banker falls back upon his mother
You're a senior rainmaking silver-haired deal maker type. Where should you work if you want a big job title, the opportunity to build a team, and mediocre pay? Try UBS.
Financial News reports that UBS is hiring 'more than two dozen' senior deal makers over the next two years, with a particular focus on Europe and the U.S. The hires are reportedly being initiated by Andrea Orcel, CEO of UBS investment bank, who plans to build an 'advisory powerhouse' under the auspices of the Swiss bank. Encouraged by Orcel, UBS has already hired numerous big name M&A bankers, including William Vereker from Nomura, Laurence Grafstein from Rothschild (in the US) and Robin Osmond, former head of investment banking at HSBC. All have (seemingly) been men. All have been aged in their late 40s, or beyond.
Financial News says UBS intends to lure its next 24 senior bankers with big job titles and promises that they'll be able to build their own teams. The downside is the pay. UBS is reportedly paying 30%-50% below market rates and with costs still a big issue at the investment bank, this is unlikely to change soon.
Separately, Kareem Serageldin - the former global head of structured credit trading at Credit Suisse who earned $7m in 2007, now faces a very different future. On Friday, Serageldin was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $150k for inflating the price of Credit Suisse's trading book during the financial crisis in an effort to increase his bonus. Serageldin also forfeited $26m in deferred compensation to Credit Suisse - $20m of which he earned years before 2007.
Although harsh, Serageldin's punishment could have been far harsher. In January, the Independent reported that he faced up to 45 years in prison and Reuters reported that prosecutors had requested a prison sentence of up to five years. Serageldin appears to have been accorded leniency thanks to his mother, Saimia Geldin, an Egyptian author and academic living in North Carolina. Saimia, who had previously described herself as a 'hockey mum,' stood up in court and delivered an impassioned plea on behalf of her son, claiming that as the child of immigrants he had worked hard to make his family proud and that his mistakes at Credit Suisse should be seen, "in the context of his whole life history." The judge, an immigrant himself, said he weighted this plea when awarding the reduced sentence. A mother's work is never done, even if your son has been a successful banker.
Meanwhile:
Barclays is introduced 'role-based pay' to help sidestep the bonus cap. (Bloomberg)
Various banks are launching a new electronic bond trading platform, Tradeweb Markets LLC, which could become the place to work in fixed income trading. (Wall Street Journal)
Jamie Dimon has been renting out Buckingham Palance for a little corporate entertaining. (Financial Times)
Moritz Erhardt was an outstanding intern and an outstanding human. (Daily Mail)
"On average, I get four hours' sleep about 70% of the time … [but] there are also days with eight hours of sleep."(Guardian)
Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative that would have restricted executive salaries to 12 times that of the lowest paid employee.(WSJ)
Hedge fund managers at SAC Capital were encouraged to come up with good ideas and then rewarded with special “Cohen tag bonuses” — named for the hedge fund’s founder, Steven A. Cohen — for ideas that translated into windfall gains. (NYTimes)
Oriel Securities has recruited 12 analysts and salespeople (to make up for the 25 that left). (Financial News)
Almost a third of female asset management staff have suffered sexual harassment at work. (Financial Times)
