Morning Coffee: The psychological side effects of losing your banking job aged 41. Reality of junior pay in law
Losing a job in banking might be considered a kind of liberation if it's the catalyst for going off and doing something you've always wanted, like running a pub in the English countryside or setting up a condom-making business. It can also constitute a harsh loss of both income and identity.
Trevor Murray falls into the latter category. A 46 year-old former UBS CMBS strategist, Murray lost his job five years ago. He's been working in a grocery store and things are not going well.
In a court case contesting Murray's dismissal, Murray's attorney described his client's, 'depression, insomnia and loss of libido.' A psychiatrist who's acting as Murray's expert witness says Murray has been unable to eat or sleep, and that his client felt like like "damaged goods" and that "no one wanted to touch him." The psychiatrist added that: “The loss of a high-value job is a well-established environmental trigger for depressive disorders.”
Murray's mental state would undoubtedly be better were he too off being an entrepreneur or travelling the world. Going from a front office banking job to an hourly wage stacking shelves is a precipitous fall. The longer your career in finance, the more important it is to have contingency plan. Murray, meanwhile, is looking for money to assuage the pain: he says he deserves more than $3m in back pay.
Separately, the British legal blog RollonFriday has some figures for junior lawyers' salaries. Three years after qualifying, it says lawyers at London firm Slaughter & May are earning £108k. This is supplemented by a 16% bonus, bringing the total to £126k ($169k). Not bad, but it's still lower than banking.
Meanwhile:
The UK Labour Party declared it was a "threat" to Morgan Stanley, but it would like to meet the bank all the same. (CityAm)
Public statements by investment banks suggest that just 4,600 jobs (6% of the total) will move out of London because of Brexit. (Financial Times)
The EU bonus cap won't be removed when the UK leaves the EU because it doing so would destroy "equivalence" and prevent UK banks accessing the EU market. (Financial News)
Forget moving to Amsterdam and getting yourself a house by the canal. (Bloomberg)
It's a good time to be a European M&A banker: EU targeted M&A is up 23% this year, while U.S. targeted M&A is down 30%. (Financial News)
“The European banks are the second-class citizens of the banking world, and as such, they are paid in this manner -- less and less each year.” (Bloomberg)
Citadel trader joins Millennium. (HFMWeek)
Steve Cohen's guide to setting up a new hedge fund: lock-in client money for 1-3 years. (Bloomberg)
Citi and J.P. Morgan are using a post-trade derivatives processing platform that uses artificial intelligence. (The Trade)
The real reason Millennials love banks' signing bonuses: " For millennials, being debt-free is almost like the new American dream, more so than home ownership, because it causes more stress.” (BBC)
Ravens make great strategists (Forbes)
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