Morning Coffee: Low-key banker retires in high style. Difference between Google and Goldman laid bare

If you were you asked to name one of banking's biggest beneficiaries of the past decade, you probably wouldn't look to Standard Chartered for your candidate. If so, you'd be missing a trick: Mike Rees, the bank's former deputy chief executive and head of global markets, did very well for himself. Very well for himself indeed.

As we reported in February, someone at Standard Chartered was paid £14m ($21m) last year - and that person is generally thought to have been Rees. In the five years between 2009 and 2014, the Sunday Times says Rees earned £50m ($73m), which isn't bad given a comparatively inauspicious start at Britain's Aston University (ranked below 400th globally), followed by a career that began in accounting and then the treasury business at Standard Chartered in Singapore.

Rees was sidelined at Standard Chartered following the arrival of new CEO Bill Winters. After being assigned "brand and marketing" and nothing else in a management reorg, he opted to retire. Rees' retirement party reportedly took place last week and was attended by such banking A-listers as Bill Gnodde of Goldman Sachs and John MacFarlane of Barclays. With the cord cut at Standard Chartered, Rees is now free to pursue every ex-banker's dream: he's moving to his vineyard in Tuscany, funded by his Standard Chartered pension of... £11k a week.

Separately, Bloomberg confirms that the big difference between the Googles and the Goldman Sachs of this word is the benefits. Tech firms' benefits are huge. Google, for example, is said to offer its interns benefits packages of $9k a month to cover housing and food, alongside a salary of $6.5k a month. By comparison, the benefits on offer at banks are diminutive - but at the end of the day, do you want pay or do you want perks? 

Meanwhile:

Man complains he's unable to earn $250k in tech, wants to move to finance instead. (Reddit) 

Bank of China's got a new building in the middle of Manhattan. Most of the people it employs there are ethnically Chinese. (WSJ)

Deutsche Bank assigned five of its most senior bankers to a review of its know-your-client procedures. They didn't do a very good job. (Bloomberg) 

J.P. Morgan just promoted Melissa Gallagher, a former Lehman Brothers compliance professional, to MD. (Financial News) 

Credit Suisse has no current plans to clawback bonuses from Brady Dougan. (WSJ)

Former head of FX strategy at ABN AMRO turns his Marxist dissertation into a book about the City of London. (Financial Times)

Centerview Partners is hiring healthcare bankers. (Bloomberg)

Healthcare bankers are having a great year. (WSJ)

Barclays might get a new investment banking CEO after all. He will probably come from outside the bank. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs is quietly growing its equities business. (Business Insider)

There’s a statistically significant correlation between numeracy and wealth. (Science Direct)

"I am very happy about the opportunity to join your company and understand that because of your salary band and company policy, you are only able to offer me $95k. I believe $100k reflects my abilities and the value I can bring to your company. What would you be able to offer me in terms of benefits to bridge this gap?” (Financial Times)

Photo credit: Grapes by John Kavanagh is licensed under CC BY 2.0.