Morning Coffee: RBC Capital Markets’ profits just rose by 37%. UBS paying for big names in M&A

RBC Capital Markets is hiring. It's hiring equity research and M&A professionals (with a focus on healthcare and telecoms, media and technology). And it's hiring fixed income sales and trading professionals (opportunistically). Maybe you should want to work there? RBC just released its second quarter results and in the capital markets business they're rather good.

The centerpiece of RBC's achievement is a 37% increase in profits across its capital markets business (corporate banking, advisory and sales and trading) year-on-year in the second quarter. Corporate banking and advisory revenues rose 35% over the same period. Yes, revenues from trading rates, credit, FX and commodities fell 2% year-on-year, but this doesn't look so bad in a market when JPMorgan is predicting a 20% decline. Most excitingly, RBC seems to be paying more: spending on compensation at RBC Capital Markets is up 10%.

Separately, UBS is making good on its promise to hire a lot of senior M&A professionals. The Swiss bank just recruited Severin Brizay from JPMorgan and Glenn Rewick from Bank of America. When UBS announced its M&A push last November, it promised to pay any new hires half the market rate, but neither Brizay nor Rewick are likely to have come cheap. Brizay spent 14 years at JPMorgan and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register shows that he's still registered with the bank - suggesting UBS lured him away. Rewick left Bank of America and is likely to be on gardening leave before reuniting with former boss Andrea Orcel at UBS.

Meanwhile:

Hecklers interrupt Anshu Jain: "With every dirty mess, Deutsche Bank is there." (Financial Times) 

Deutsche’s plan to raise €8bn of capital casts doubts on Mr Jain’s credibility. (Financial Times) 

"In the banking industry there will be winners and losers, and we are systematically positioning Deutsche Bank to be a winner," said Anshu Jain. (Reuters) 

Doubling down on investment banking seems to have been the only strategy available to Deutsche: the division accounts for the lion’s share of its profits. (Economist) 

Crispin Odey, who is now only 20% long, says he sees his chicken house more as a folly. It's actually going to be a library. (NY Times) 

Some banks (Deutsche, Nomura) are now building out their trading desks. (Bloomberg) 

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