Morning Coffee: Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are watching their employees constantly. Greed no longer goes to Wall Street

Watching bankers in real time is the new thing. Last month, J.P. Morgan introduced an app that allowed its employees to send and receive criticism of their colleagues instantly, and now Goldman Sachs has officially rolled out software that it began piloting last year.

Goldman Sachs' new performance review system, the Ongoing Feedback360+ initiative, lets employees send and receive real-time feedback to and from managers throughout the year. Its new system will let both employees and managers access a dashboard that summarizes the feedback they’ve gotten throughout the year, Bloomberg reported. If the prospect of being appraised by colleagues constantly fills you with dread, particularly after Goldman's recent layoffs, bear in mind that this follows an earlier shake up where Goldman's employees are no longer rated by numbers. It'll be fine...

Financial services firms such as Goldman and JPMorgan are adapting as technology enables real-time criticism of everything from restaurant meals and package deliveries to car-service drivers and Airbnb hosts, so why not apply it to annual performance reviews?

Separately, well before Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” mantra was embraced unironically by former fraternity brothers turned young bankers and hedge fund professionals, Wall Street used to be known as a beacon attracting the most avaricious of university graduates year in and year out. However, these days more rapacious graduates are going into Silicon Valley.

Ellen Pao, the venture capital investor who sued one of the top VC firms in the world for gender discrimination, has blamed Silicon Valley’s “toxic” culture on an influx of “greedy” male graduates.

Sexism has become commonplace in the tech industry because the quick riches some have attained in the Bay Area have lured hyper-aggressive men who a generation ago would have gone to work on Wall Street, she said.

“This idea that you can make a lot of money at a very young age has meant that folks who 10 or 15 years ago would have gone to investment banking, now go into tech. There is a culture of greed here,” Pao said, as quoted by The Times.

Meanwhile:

The EU and the financial services industry are among those pinning their hopes on centrist candidate and former investment banker Emmanuel Macron’s campaign to defeat far-right Marine Le Pen in the final round of the French presidential election on May 7. (MarketWatch)

The European Central Bank said that its liquidity facilities remain available to counter any market tension that may arise if the unthinkable – a Le Pen win – were to happen. (Bloomberg)

Deutsche Bank has been hit with the first Volcker rule fine. (Bloomberg)

Reinstating Glass-Steagall would not address the main issue on Wall Street - pay (New York Times)

The infighting on Trump’s team seem pales in comparison to what the former No. 2 at Goldman Sachs led his bank through during the financial crisis. (Politico)

Citigroup is hiring quants. (Financial News)

Traders are debating how to play European bank stocks as earnings announcements loom. (Bloomberg)

In the costly San Francisco Bay Area, even six-figure salaries are considered ‘low income.’ (Mercury News)

The attack that injured one Borussia Dortmund soccer player appears to have been an attempt to manipulate the stock market. (Business Insider)

A smart immigration policy that includes H-1B visa reform would aim to increase, not cut, the inflow of talented people to the U.S. (Bloomberg)

Overall, in rich countries – those most likely to implement the latest automation technologies – human employment has held fairly steady for the last quarter-century ... so we've got that going for us, which is nice. (Bloomberg)

Photo credit: EmmaKStudio/GettyImages