Morning Coffee: Goldman Sachs' plea to 20-somethings who might want to work there. Doubts cast upon performance at Barclays

If you're looking for a back door into a first job at Goldman Sachs, this would seem to be it. Financial News reports that Goldman is having a few problems filling places on its consumer and commercial banking work placement class.

At Goldman Sachs, consumer and commercial banking means Marcus, the new digital bank which has been sucking in retail banking deposits in the U.K. and the U.S., and which already had $27bn in deposits last November.  

Needless to say, if you work for Marcus you're not going to be doing M&A deals or trading derivative products, which might be why enthusiasm for the placements is limited among Goldman's usually enthusiastic pool of talent. Another reason might be the fact that in the U.K., Marcus jobs are located in places like Milton Keynes , and that in the U.S. they're located in places like downtown Dallas - neither of which are going to be alluring if you're 22 years old and always imagined yourself in London or New York City. Nor does it help that there's not much mention of these Marcus internships on Goldman's student site.... 

Still, given the difficulty of getting almost any other job at Goldman Sachs (223,849 people applied for around 4,000 positions a few years ago), the Marcus internships should not be dismissed too lightly. Financial News says Goldman's desperation is such that it's even taken to asking interns signed up to its other programmes if they have any friends who might be interested in helping out. Kerry Vanslembrouck, vice-president of Europe, Middle East and Africa graduate recruitment at Goldman Sachs has reportedly been emailing Goldman's existing/incoming interns and telling them that profile requirements for Marcus are "rather different" to other divisions. It's not clear whether 'rather different' means 'less demanding' but Goldman is clearly in need of applicants. If you want to work in Milton Keynes and bring "innovative solutions to traditional banking activities" (Goldman's tagline for Marcus jobs), now's your chance. Jobs encompass everything from risk management to marketing, technology, and operations.

Seperately, you may remember the outstanding performance of Barclays' equities division last year. Edward Bramson, the activist investor who wants to shrink Barclays' investment bank, does and he's not impressed. Bramson, who owns a 5.5% stake in Barclays and is the bank's biggest investor, is now pushing for a seat on Barclays' board.  He says the outperformance of the investment bank in 2018 was chimerical and the result of Barclays undercutting rivals “rather than any change in long-term strategic competitiveness”.

Meanwhile:

Yes, Barclays's shares fell 26% last year, but this was better than the Bloomberg Europe 500 Banks and Financial Services Index, which fell 28%. (Bloomberg) 

Yes, returns at Barclays' investment bank are dire. Yes, they hardly cover the cost of capital. But every European bank has a similar problem. (Financial Times) 

As a corporate law associate, UBS's Jim Amine worked an average of 77 hours per week for an entire year. This helped persuade him move to M&A instead. In M&A he noted that bankers went home after negotiations were complete. (Financial News) 

Gordon Dyal left Goldman Sachs in 2015. He now runs successful boutique firm Dyal & Co with his wife (also an ex-Goldman banker) from an office adorned with bison photographs. "“He’s like central casting for an old school M&A guy...He's the personification of tough guy negotiator...." (Financial Times) 

The City of London Magistrates’ Court has lodged a complaint with the City of London Corporation about the number of cigarette butts Bloomberg employees are leaving outside its office. (Financial News) 

Brexit warning for sovereign debt markets: "If we are required to move traders to where they are not today, that would be a big impact on euro [government bond] liquidity just at a time when those sovereigns need it most; it may even be difficult for us to bid in auctions from London.” (Financial Times) 

An EY study says financial services companies have moved almost £800bn in staff, operations and other assets to Europe since the Brexit referendum. (Financial Times) 

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