Morning Coffee: The banker boyfriend who will help inform Goldman Sachs' automation of junior jobs. Andrea Orcel's Commerzbank alternatives

Dating an investment banker is never easy. If you're the daughter of Melissa Goldman, the aptly named incoming global head of technology engineering for Goldman Sachs' global banking and markets division, it may just have got a bit harder. 

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Speaking to Business Insider, Goldman said that her daughter is two years into dating a junior banker at another firm and that as she thinks about automating the work of banking juniors, she's "watching" and considering how information could be pulled together and his tasks made easier. Goldman starts at Goldman on October 7th, so she has two more weeks of observations to go. 

Her arrival comes amidst the reignited interest in junior bankers' hours following the death of Leo Lukenas at Bank of America earlier this summer. JPMorgan has restricted bankers' hours to 80 per week, but Goldman Sachs - and other banks - have not. The pressure will be on Goldman's tech team to mitigate working hours with automation instead. 

The process is nothing new. Goldman has been talking about automating banking jobs for years. In 2017, it launched a tool to automate half the IPO process. In 2021, the Financial Times reported that it already had 100 automation efficiency projects underway in the investment bank, including a tool that automatically updates charts in presentations with new data. The firm even has a 'global head of pitchbook automation' in the form of Tolu Akinyosoye in New York. 

Given that Goldman Sachs the firm is seemingly already a long way down the automation road, Goldman the woman may use her daughter's boyfriend as a benchmark for how bad things can be elsewhere. She may also reach the conclusion that most of the things that can be automated has been already. Clients want human beings. “In a live deal, you’re in it until it’s over. You can’t just say you’re sick of working 16-hour days and stop. It’s just not realistic," one junior, who is probably not the boyfriend, tells Financial News. 

Separately, the German government has decided that it's not a fan of Andrea Orcel's efforts to acquire Unicredit. The FT reports this morning that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is saying things like: “unfriendly attacks [and] hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks and that is why the German government has clearly positioned itself”.

The FT noted yesterday that Orcel has other options. He could, for example, sell HVB - the German bank that Unicredit already owns - to Commerzbank, meaning that Commerzbank would persist as a quoted entity and Unicredit would be a dominant investor. If the German government were a bit more friendly, however, the FT suggests Orcel could use Unicredit to acquire Commerz and then acquire something else too - maybe even Barclays in the UK?

Meanwhile...

Jim Covello, Goldman's head of stock research is still sceptical about AI. (New York Times) 

The German government said it won't be selling any more shares in Commerzbank anyway. (Bloomberg)  

Andrea Orcel used Barclays to help build his stake in Commerzbank by buying derivatives linked to the German bank. (Bloomberg) 

Citi can't expand in China as planned because it needs a clearance letter from the Fed verifying its regulatory standing but this hasn't been forthcoming because of the bank's data issues. (Bloomberg) 

The hottest bankers now may be the bankers working on power infrastructure to enable AI. HSBC probably wants some. (Bloomberg) 

Wealthy people in the UK particularly don't like the government's plan to include 40% inheritance tax on offshore wealth, and to tax carried interest at a rate as high as 45%, rather than 28% currently. (Bloomberg) 

Evercore has a new London office in Victoria. (Bloomberg) 

Compliance in the time of algorithms is a different sort of matter. There's evidence that AI algorithms collude to raise margins. (Bloomberg) 

Yigit Onkan Sazak, a vice-president at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, put his anxious dog into a therapy course but the dog got its leg broken. He's received a £10k payout. (Telegraph) 

Don't buy a French chateau. 'Their $1 million renovation budget—overage from their home sale—quickly became $1.5 million. And to fix old problems while getting the quality finishes and fixtures they want? They’re looking at more like $3 million.' “It is becoming completely unaffordable.” (WSJ) 

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