eFinancialCareers

At least one sector of finance is experiencing continued demand and relative security in total compensation: compliance. In tough times, firms need to retain professionals who are overseeing critical legal and regulatory functions. Not only will some firms be adding in this area, insiders say, but they expect bonuses will reward compliance officers and analysts across a range of specialized areas. Some Bonuses Could Be Better Than Expected In a year when... Read more

A recent burst of mass layoffs from Canadian securities firms coincides with continued opportunistic hiring by those same firms. The Globe and Mail reports that Canaccord Capital announced a 10 percent staff cut last Thursday – eliminating 170 jobs mainly involving support roles. Yet Canacord recently hired two senior ex-JPMorgan bankers to run its fixed-income business, as well as making other hires in New York from JPMorgan and in Britain... Read more

In the financial job market, when it comes to education and credentials, the more the merrier. So how do you determine which are right for you? At a time when many job postings ask for a master's degree and/or a professional designation, earning both is important "if you want to see your resume go to the top of the pile," says Tom Robinson, head of educational content for the CFA... Read more

The move by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become regulated bank holding companies effectively unites U.S. finance into a single sector. "This fundamentally alters the landscape," a Goldman Sachs spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. "By becoming a bank holding company and being regulated by the Federal Reserve, we have directly addressed issues that have become of mounting concern to market participants in recent weeks." Along with investment banks, Wall... Read more

Below-market salaries are impeding Canada's central bank from fielding a world-class research team, according to a recently published report by an authoritative panel of U.S.-based economists commissioned by the Bank of Canada itself. The panel found "a substantial inconsistency" between pay scales and the bank's official objective of operating a “second-to-none” research department. "The Bank faces a difficult choice: either abandon the objective, or increase the amount of resources for economist... Read more

Negotiating compensation is a delicate dance that begins when you first apply for a job. Often, candidates are asked for information they may not wish to provide at the outset, when a job posting asks for their current or most recent compensation. "I have real reservations about disclosing comp without knowing who the other party is," says New York career counselor Roy Cohen. On the other hand, if a company... Read more

The Institute of International Finance is recommending Wall Street' securities firms make their pay practices more transparent and tie compensation more to market risk. Earlier this year the group was reported to be drawing up a wide-ranging recommendation to revamp, among other things, the way bonuses are awarded. Its 200-page report claims to establish "best practices" for banking industry compensation. By aligning pay with risk-adjusted performance and adopting the report's... Read more

Citigroup reportedly is reshaping its bonus system to emphasize divisional cooperation and overall corporate performance. "We have to put a premium on partnership-like behaviour," an unnamed Citi executive told the Financial Times. The FT describes the change as a key plank in Chief Executive Vikram Pandit's strategy to revitalize the "universal banking" model by fostering synergies among investment banking, commercial banking and wealth management. Pandit reportedly asked Citi's HR chief to... Read more

If you get a job offer on Wall Street, the compensation may be roughly 20 percent below what you could have commanded a year ago. That's the upshot of a new survey of recruiters released this week by the smart cube, a London-based global research boutique. The survey aimed to pinpoint and quantify how the market downturn is affecting employer and candidate expectations and bargaining power, particularly in terms of compensation. In... Read more

So you think you're underpaid? In a global bonus survey conducted by eFinancialCareers News, 62 percent of securities professionals thought they should have been paid more for their efforts in 2007. The survey was conducted in the days before Bear Stearns was subsumed by JPMorgan and Bradford & Bingley cast a deathly pallor across the British banking sector. Some 938 users of eFinancialCareers sites around the world responded. Only 18.6... Read more

First the good news for accountants: There are plenty of jobs out there. Now the bad news: Some recruiters say salaries are rising at a slower rate than they have in previous years. Candidates with backgrounds in taxation, auditing and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are commanding premium salaries even as companies grapple with a slowing economy, according to Toronto-based recruiters. Having the designation of Chartered Accountant is an advantage for... Read more

Demand for financial advisors is expected to be brisk even as the growth in the overall Canadian job market slows. The need for professionals to help people with their financial and retirement planning is outstripping the supply of candidates. Positions are opening up because of the retirement of Baby Boomers and the general labor shortage, according to Advocis, the Financial Advisors Association of Canada. "Banks are hiring aggressively," says Taylor Train, an... Read more

A candidate's present compensation can hurt their chances if it's too high, but won't help if it's low. So beware of sticking with the same employer over a string of single-digit annual raises which could eventually leave your pay below the market average. That's one message of a Wall Street Journal column that explains how employers decide what to offer and explores what it takes to get an above-average package in... Read more

A new tally indicates the top hedge fund tycoons earned even more in 2007 than indicated by a set of estimates published earlier this month. John Paulson, whose firm achieved spectacular returns by being among the first to bet heavily on the sub-prime collapse, took in $3.7 billion, according to Alpha Magazine's annual ranking of the highest paid fund managers. That figure was a record high. Illustrating the gusher of wealth... Read more

A new ranking of the highest paid hedge fund leaders bolsters fund proponents' claim that they can profit in good times and bad. Trader Monthly magazine's latest annual top-earners list is headed by five individuals thought to have earned at least $1 billion each last year. While those titans owned their firms, the revenue that hedge funds earn through returns-based incentive fees often is included in compensation formulas for hedge fund... Read more

Global bank leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week are discussing the unthinkable: overhauling industry-wide compensation practices in an effort to shore up risk management. The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a global association of banks, is seeking to create a code of best practices "which would discourage banks from giving incentives to traders to take excessively risky bets and from failing to censure them if these turn sour," according... Read more

The trading debacle at Societe Generale could give a boost to Wall Street's internal watchdogs, the risk and compliance professionals who populate back- and middle offices. In a world of increasingly complex trading vehicles and demanding regulators, compensation, stature and headcounts within departments that oversee trading activity are already on the upswing. The latest events will likely accelerate the trend, even though SocGen's rogue trader constructed his phony futures positions from... Read more