Morning Coffee: 40 year-old Morgan Stanley trader enjoying voluntary redundancy. Goldman man's Trump donation

As they look to save money, investment banks are killing off their director and managing director level staff. Sadly, this means anyone above the age of 35 is in the death-zone. Although you don't generally want to do away with your source of income when you've got a wife and family to support, sometimes stepping down can be a good idea. Just ask Oliver Jerome, former head of emerging markets FX at Morgan Stanley.

Jerome, who is aged around 40, left Morgan Stanley along with 1,200 other fixed income professionals in December last year. Unlike other members of the bank's fixed income business, however, he left voluntarily. Jerome 'negotiated an exit' with Morgan Stanley and left, we assume, with some kind of ample payoff.

Jerome has since put this valedictory payment to good use. Financial News reports that he's setting up a new 'FX comparison site' with another ex-Morgan Stanley colleague - Pete Egglestone, former head of the bank's quantitative solutions and innovations team, who also took voluntary redundancy.

BestX, which will open later this year, will compare FX execution options using transaction cost analysis - something absent from the FX market so far due to the lack of central trade benchmarking data.  The two men clearly think they're onto something: "There is a perfect storm of factors in the FX industry that is driving demand for increased transparency and accountability around execution quality," said Egglestone, adding that they plan to hire judiciously later this year.

Separately, Goldman Sachs has done away with its single employee who made a campaign donation to Donald Trump. The New York Times reports that Luke Thorburn, a financial advisor who joined Goldman's wealth management business in 2014, is on 'administrative leave.' Thoburn's absence has nothing to do with unwelcome political allegiances and everything to do with running a business on the side. Thorburn was reportedly operating a company which sells caps saying, "Make Christianity Great Again." In this context, the NYT says the $534 Thoburn 'gave' to the Trump campaign was probably just him buying Trump's merchandise, emblazoned with the similar words, 'Make America Great Again.'

Moral of the story: don't run a business while you work for Goldman Sachs, especially if it's one with slightly 'off' evangelical and political undertones.

Meanwhile:

Work for Warren Buffett, win $1m a year for the rest of your life. (Mashable)

Ex-Deutsche MD had no memory of stag party which initiated his insider trader ring. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs has got these co-heads of US ECM. (Business Insider)

Paul Gibbon, a managing director in leveraged finance capital markets at UBS, has left for Sumitomo Mitsui. (Mashable)  

Former hedge fund manager Philip Falcone said that there's "an awful lot of mediocrity" these days in the hedge fund space. (Business Insider) 

Jes Staley is a "nice chap" and Barclays will keep paying your cellphone subscription accidentally after you leave. ” (WSJ) 

The market for significant new investment-grade deals saw 75 'no go' days over the past 12 months, in which the primary market was essentially shut. (Bloomberg) 

The ‘Silicon Valley Hustle’ (AKA staying in a frat house with a mouldering mattress in the yard). (NY Times) 

Anshu Jain, Fintech entrepreneur. (Economic Times)

Photo credit: Morgan Stanley building by Alan Wu is licensed under CC BY 2.0.