Citigroup has been hiring in London this year, and it seems to have been paying substantially above market rate. Maybe this is why it won’t be offering generous bonuses to existing staff.
Bloomberg reports that this year’s Citi bonuses will be down or flat and that traders and salespeople will be targeted for bonus cuts (albeit small ones of just 2%). Worse, Bloomberg has spoken to someone at Citi who outlines a gloomy need to work harder in order to earn the same: “people will earn 5%-10% less than they would have a year ago for the same amount of production,” this person ‘with knowledge of the situation’ said.
If Citi staff are being made to sweat without anything more to show for it, the same can’t be said over at Odey Asset Management. The Telegraph reports that Crispin Odey has dispersed Odey’s £55m profits for the year ending in April between his 18 members of staff, after first paying himself £14.2m. The situation at Odey is improving: last year people there shared £27m – which still sounds extremely generous indeed.
Separately – and after our recent lament about the sorry state of equities hiring, Jonathan Beebe the European head of equities at Barclays has informed Bloomberg that hiring is almost certainly coming next year. “Most of the restructuring in equities has happened,” said Beebe. “Revenue growth this year is around 10% for the top 10 banks. That environment may create the need for some banks to look to hire.” As we recently reported, Barclays is building a new equities sales desk.
Meanwhile:
All staff at JPMorgan are now “prohibited from participating in electronic chats or instant messaging groups with two or more other banks/dealers.” (Financial Times)
Entry into the FX ‘Cartel’ chat room was coveted by nonmembers, who said they saw it as a golden ticket because of the influence it exerted. (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley is pulling back from physical oil trading after its commodities trading revenues fell from $3bn in 2008 to $700m now. (WSJ)
£5m raised from LIBOR fines will be used to fix damaged war memorials. (Guardian)
Why you need a recruiter to help you find a job. (The Undercover Recruiter)
“Humans have a memory span of only 30 years, and I can prove it.” (ScienceSpeaks)