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Jobs and Career Management in the Financial Markets, Banking & Finance |
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TOP STORIESWhy foreign i-banks still aren't hiring22 April 2009By Simon Mortlock There are signs of growth in Australian capital markets, but this isn’t leading to new vacancies as cash-strapped i-banks look to redeploy rather than recruit. The top-10 investment banks in Australia earned $521.1m in Q1 this year, a 16.6% increase from Q1 2008, according to Thomson Reuters figures. And during the past year ECM and DCM work has replaced M&A advice as their main income source. Debt market revenue in January to March 2009 was more than double the level earned for all of 2008. Equity has also been buoyant, with a number of companies carrying out raisings, particularly in the past few weeks, to take advantage of stronger global markets. But this fresh activity in the markets is not spilling over into recruitment. “We aren't seeing much hiring from the full-service investment banks and several have headcount freezes,” says Angus Price, a partner at Derwent Executive. Investment banking in Australia is dominated by foreign firms and their US or European headquarters are taking a hard line on hiring. “Even replacement roles are rigorously assessed before a firm will recruit externally,” says Tim Beach, a front-office recruiter at Robert Walters. UBS, for example, may have maintained its number one position in Australian i-banking, but globally it made US$1.75bn loss for the first quarter and is planning to slash another 7,500 jobs worldwide. “ECM and DCM teams are busy. They would like to have more people on the execution side, but they can’t push it through. They are under pressure to source internally, especially if M&A teams are letting people go,” says Beach. Price adds: “Even with an increase in capital markets activity and the emergence of some new restructuring divisions, most investment banks are redeploying candidates from other areas that aren't as busy.” Redeployment might, for example, mean credit analysts moving to insolvency roles, or M&A professionals shifting to capital markets. But if they haven’t started recruiting yet, have the global i-banks at least finished most of their retrenchment in Australia? “It's too early to call if headcounts have now stabilised but we anticipate that we are now close to the end of the retrenchment cycle within banking and if there are further rounds we don't anticipate they will be as deep,” says Price.
COMMENTSGuhan, Investment Banking / M & A, Wed 22 Apr 09Most investment banks are not recruiting mainly due to cost cutting rather than decrease in capital market activity. Add your comment »read it again, Information Technology, Wed 22 Apr 09Guhan, the point the article makes is that cost-cutting is the reason for the lack of recruitment, despite the fact that capital markets activity is INCREASING. In other words, the pick-up in Aus capital markets in Q1 isn't enough to affect hiring levels at i-banks when their headoffices overseas are still in cost-cutting mode. Add your comment »Wayne, Accounting & Finance, Thu 23 Apr 09Too much pessimism on the whole will negative the positive local results, no hiring til the overseas headquarters get their cars out of the deep ditch. Add your comment »Sifet, Corporate Banking, Fri 24 Apr 09Employment trends also tend to lag the real economy by 6-12 months,. Employers typically wait till the economy is on a solid foundation before recruiting, so I wouldn't expect hiring patterns to increase until 2010.
bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09Is it really cost cutting given that the banks are bailed out by the government i.e. US banks. Or global banks are just trying to find better talents and fresh idea to inject in the company. In the past recruitment consultants provided resources predominantly from top executives to middle management that did not perform well from expectation. Key operational roles (head of operation and head of IT) failed to provide appropriate operational risk safety nets to the company. IT professionals (application managers, project managers) are the worst offenders they cannot get their act right. They lack business acumen and they hesitate to understand the front office business. Regional managers lack leadership they cannot put a their foot on the ground. Portfolio managers and traders in the front office of the investment banks push the responsibility to their regional heads and risk managers. Add your comment »bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09Portfolio mangers and traders are the worst offenders in taking risky bets and passing the ball (responsibility) to risk managers. This is where the lack of leadership is coming from within the investment bank. Credit risk analyst failed to conduct their due diligence in providing their own insights most of them are just complacently relying on credit rating agencies which we all know also failed due to “conflict of interest”. Add your comment »bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09The recruitment agencies put all these resources to the industry for the past 10 years. Which makes the recruiting sector accessory to the financial crisis. You can put candidates with long work experience just like what you did in the past but the ethical standard of a number of these candidates was below average. Add your comment »bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09Recruiting agencies should be regulated as well going forward. To top it all some of you hire workers overseas to pump up your commission. Knowing that there are displaced resident employees in the financial market and the current local talents are not lacking in the industry. Add your comment »bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09In short more resources is needed going forward to stabilize the global banking industry and financial industry. This will have ripple effect to managed fund and retail banking.
bloom_jasper, Sun 03 May 09It is only in year 2008 when the global banks started to reduce risky bets when risk management practice was tight after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The people in risk management whom recruiters put forward prior 2008 either resigned or took maternity leave in 2007 knowing that they have not done a good job but instead complacent to their corporate responsibiliteis amassing toxic assets together with the traders and portfolio managers. BAs / risk managers running away from their accountabilities. Add your comment » |
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