Morning Coffee: Every single investment bank is competing for this candidate. Disaster at Jefferies

2016 is shaping up to involve an epic battle. Investment banks from every corner of the globe, large and small, equipped with cash buyouts and mammoth salaries are all going to be out there competing for that same person: the M&A rainmaker.

The first sign that this was coming came last month, when Marisa Drew, co-head of EMEA capital markets at Credit Suisse, told Financial News she's in the market for up to 10 managing directors in Europe in the near term, adding that they must be, "needle movers and A players." Then we had Daniel Pinto, head of the investment bank at J.P. Morgan telling Bloomberg he wants to hire "dozens" of senior M&A bankers. Next we had Nomura saying it wants to hire (another) 20 investment bankers in North America next year. And now we have Barclays, which has just hired two senior healthcare bankers (one of them from Goldman Sachs), and Goldman Sachs itself, which is clearly doing its very, very, utmost to keep its finest M&A bankers happy and has just promoted four of them to senior roles as it seeks to 'enrich' its global M&A franchise ahead of what is likely to be another year of frenzied deal-doing.

Separately, fixed income traders are not going to be so popular in 2016. For a measure of their impending unpopularity, look at Jefferies, where fixed income revenues fell 82% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.  Think that's bad? Jefferies' fixed income revenues are down 97% since 2012. 

Meanwhile:

Private equity funds are predicting a boom in private equity led M&A next year. (Financial News) 

“All the banks are saying they want to retain their investment banking franchises, and the M&A boom is likely to continue, so it would seem counterproductive to reduce costs in this area.” (Financial News) 

Senior bankers in the UK won't have to prove they always took the right course of action when their bank fails after all. (Guardian) 

Deutsche Bank admits that it's less tech savvy than Fannie Mae. (Dealbreaker)

Standard Chartered has hired an ex-Barclays banker as its global head of wealth management. (Reuters) 

Government minister joins hedge fund. (Telegraph) 

Blythe Masters' Blockchain startup is seemingly worth $100m. (Quartz) 

Ex-Barclays' chairman joins Blockchain company. (Telegraph) 

Jeffrey Teach, a UBS trader who joined a hedge fund, has left that hedge fund two years later. (Financial Times) 

Recruiters prefer talent to determination. (Economist)  

Photo credit: vDraw on Thinkstock