“This guy is good. – Off the charts good.”

How do you know if you're doing a good job in banking? Maybe you will come to hear some of the words and phrases used by former colleagues in the encomium celebrating Sajid Javid's great and lustrous banking career.

To many in the U.S. Javid is a relative unknown. But the recently-installed business secretary in the UK government spent 20 years in banking and worked in London, New York and Singapore, both at Deutsche Bank and Chase Manhattan. And by the sounds of things, he is sorely missed.

A former colleague at Chase in NYC says Javid was introduced to him as, "Off the charts good."  The man was: "Like a priest in a suit...disciplined as they come. Very methodical, spotless." Another Chase colleague gushes that Javid was: "very creative, very energetic, and a very likable guy”.  He was driven, but not "aggressively ambitious," which is good in an industry where most people are rabidly self-promoting.

Put simply, a US-based economist says Javid was just, "very, very clever." Not only that, but Javid was good at, "crisis situations." Most interestingly for anyone trying to make their way in finance, we are informed that he was an "avoider of conflict," "an internal thinker" and someone who could negotiate Deutsche's, "political waters."

Ultimately, however, Javid left banking. These days he's negotiating political waters for real, but if you aspire to rise to the top in finance feel free to use him as your role model.

Tumbling Pay at Goldman (eFinancialCareers)

Goldman Sachs, typically one of the highest paying banks, has cut its compensation bill. Here’s why.

Consulting or Banking – What’s Best For You? (eFinancialCareers)

Are you best suited to Goldman Sachs or McKinsey?

A Toxic Culture? (WSJ)

A nasty report from BaFin, the German banking watchdog, criticizes Anshu Jain personally and says he presided over a culture in which problems were 'hidden' or 'entirely negated' instead of addressed openly.

Wobbles At Citigroup (Reuters)

Revenue from Citi's fixed income business fell 1% to $3.06bn, a much smaller decline than that reported by other Wall Street banks. However, revenues in Citi's equities business fell 1% after the discovery of a collateral valuation error. Without this, they would have risen 26%.

Portrait of a Tech Leader (Recode)

Almost everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Goldman’s head of technology. 

From Bitcoins to Sub-prime (WSJ)

Blythe Masters, the former J.P. Morgan executive, reinvents self as subprime auto lending specialist.

What Is The Right Approach At Barclays? (WSJ)

Antony Jenkins was axed because of such poor performance after three years of attempts at change. An aggressive new quest for revenue in investment banking and particularly in trading isn’t going to solve the problem. 

Quote of the Day:  

“I know I’m a big fat cat, plutocrat kind of guy, but I will tell you I’ve been the beneficiary of some of these redistribution policies. Sometimes I wish I had amnesia, because there’s lots of things I’d like to forget, but that isn’t one of them,” Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein on growing up in public housing and getting a need-based scholarship to Harvard.