Morning Coffee: Everything about Goldman Sachs is great, again. How to be sassy in the style of Jamie Dimon

Goldman Sachs might pay more for 2024. In London, it has set aside 25% more than last year to compensate its people in the first nine months, which is a good sign given that Goldman's London staff are skewed towards the front office. 

Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.

The golden glow is about a lot more than this year's bonuses, though. Previous year's bonuses paid in stock are also showing some lustre. Goldman Sachs' stock is up 75% since January. A deferred stock bonus that was worth $500k at the start of the year is now worth $875k.

This will make it more expensive for other banks to poach people from Goldman. It will also make people inclined to stay at Goldman in case their stock rises more again. The Wall Street Journal notes that Goldman's stock is up 15% in November, more than any other banks in the list of S&P 500 banks, which have risen 9% on average. 

Why is Goldman so popular again? Trump is the foremost contributory factor. The WSJ notes that Trump II will be good for M&A, that he will be good for IPOs, that he may roll back regulation, and that Goldman has $4bn in 'unrecognized performance fees' for deals done for clients which hadn't come to fruition, but which now might. Goldman's growing wealth business may also benefit from clients' increased willingness to take risk. 

Goldman also stands to benefit from its private credit business. The WSJ notes that private credit will probably thrive under Trump, both as regulators go easier on the business and as rising Treasury yields push up the rates paid on long term assets. Goldman has $140bn in private credit assets, so will be a beneficiary of this trend. So too will everyone else with GS stock bonuses. 

Separately, Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan has long been known for his sass. Yesterday it was in evidence again in relation to his rejection by Donald Trump.

Trump said he does not want Jamie Dimon, a tacit supporter of Kamala Harris, for his treasury secretary. “I respect Jamie Dimon, of JPMorgan Chase, greatly, but he will not be invited to be a part of the Trump Administration. I thank Jamie for his outstanding service to our Country!,” he declared. 

Dimon, in turn, quickly retorted that he doesn't want to be part of Trump's administration anyway. “First of all, I wish the president well, and thank you, it’s a very nice note. But I just want to tell the president also, I haven’t had a boss in 25 years and I’m not about ready to start,” he said. 

The two men's mutually declared admiration-come-denigration underscores that they might not get on well if they worked together anyway. Front runners for secretary in the Trump administration are striking a more sycophantic note. “Think about the coalition that Donald Trump assembled. This was the greatest political comeback in history, greatest political comeback in history, and it was a combination of working-class Americans and Elon Musk, the richest person the world. Who else could do that, but Donald Trump?” crooned hedge fund manager Scott Bessent yesterday.

Meanwhile...  

Jamie Dimon had already distanced himself from the chance that he might be Treasury secretary. Last month he said “the chances of that is almost nil, and I probably am not going to do it”. (Financial Times) 

Jamie Dimon says Trump II is great too. “A lot of bankers, they’re like dancing in the street. “They’ve had successive years and years of regulations, a lot of which stymied credit.” (Bloomberg) 

Citi let go its co-head of European ECM. (Financial News) 

Banks in London might need fewer risk managers. Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, says risk management has become too zealous. “The UK has been regulating for risk, but not regulating for growth. That has gone too far and, in places, it has had unintended consequences which we must now address.”(Bloomberg) 

ADIA has assembled a 125-person division of data scientists to guide in-house investing in Abu Dhabi. (Bloomberg) 

Amanda Nightingale, a BDO auditor, spent four years faking electronic signatures and evidence and filing false company accounts. No one noticed. She was under strain because a family member was ill. (Financial Times) 

Canadian bankers and hedge fund managers are entertaining clients at the Taylor Swift tour. (Bloomberg) 

Foreign banks played major roles in one-fifth of Hong Kong’s initial public offerings this year, compared with roughly half just two years ago. Chinese banks are the big beneficiaries. (WSJ) 

The number of US workers who said they're "excited about AI helping them to complete tasks at work" dropped from 45% to 36%. (Business Insider) 

Things you can say about NAV loans - “This isn’t an area I think is going to blow up. It’s just a bit of a Frankenstein structured-finance solution employed to enhance returns. It’s a viable way of going about it, but it bears more risk to the equity investors.” (Bloomberg) 

182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)