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Michael Grimaldi, the CIO of Deutsche Bank’s investment bank, has just left

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The man leading Deutsche Bank’s technology functions for its corporate and investment bank has departed after three years at the bank.

Michael Grimaldi, Deutsche’s chief information officer for its corporate and investment bank, has resigned from its London operation. We understand that he is set to join J.P. Morgan, but this was not confirmed by the bank at the time of writing.

Grimaldi was part of the gravitation of Goldman Sachs technologists at Deutsche Bank that began three years ago as the German bank sought to develop a risk and pricing platform to work across asset classes to rival Goldman’s SecDB – its ‘secret sauce’ that helped it navigate the global financial crisis.

Grimaldi joined Deutsche in 2014 to lead technology for its investment bank. He had previously spent 21 years at Goldman Sachs, latterly as head of its securities and equity research technology functions. Around the same time, Richard Shannon, the former global head of platform services in Goldman’s securities division, joined as Deutsche’s Americas CIO, while Jim Adams, CIO for Goldman’s sales, research and securities data services team, came on board as chief technology officer for Deutsche’s markets business.

Goldman was Grimaldi’s first investment banking job – he joined in 1993 from GTE Government Systems, where he was a senior engineer.

Deutsche Bank confirmed his departure.

Grimaldi’s departure is the latest in a series of shake-ups to Deutsche Bank’s technology team in recent months. The bank, which is in the midst of a wide-ranging project to simplify its technology infrastructure, promoted Pascal Boillat to the newly-created role of group chief information officer. Deutsche has around 30,000 people in technology across the organisation. It also hired in Elly Hardwick as its new head of innovation in December last year.

Henry Ritchotte, the former chief digital officer at the bank, left last year after 22 years and is now funding fintech start-ups.

Lower down the hierarchy, Nick Doddy, who previously held the role of European managing director of group technology and operation strategy and innovation, joined Barclays earlier this month. Meanwhile, Dean Mazboudi, who led its innovation lab in New York, left in June for Bank of America.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Silicon Valley keeps losing top talent to quant hedge funds

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Hedge funds are quietly courting some of the top technologists and quants in Silicon Valley, offering them six-figure starting salaries â or million dollar packages â but they remain something of an enigma.

“An engineer at Google is one of 10k at the Mountain View office, and a lot of them are not going to get to work on the coolest stuff if they’re not the CTO or the head of a department,” says Andy Legg, a director and the head of quant tech data (QTD) at GQR Global Markets, a recruitment firm. “For the best graduates in the world applying to Silicon Valley firms, hedge funds are enigma – they don’t advertise, because they don’t want to give away the details of what they’re doing to competitors like a secret society, which is an appealing quality of hedge funds for graduates.”

Google has long been more successful at luring quants than hedge funds. Luke Ellis, CEO of Man Group which has been pushing into the quant space, said that the firm had hoovered up all the quant and data science talent. Hedge funds are starting to fight back, however. Right now, they are actively to hire candidates with artificial intelligence and machine learning experience from the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, collectively known as FAANG, and luring them across with big pay packages.

Successful Ph.D. graduates can see around $150k their first year out of college, whereas experienced portfolio managers can see more than a million dollars with good performance, said Matthew Robert, senior consultant of quantitative research and trading at Selby Jennings. Fresh Ph.D. quantitative researcher candidates are getting $100k-$120k as their base salary with a discretionary bonus on top. Quantitative portfolio managers are seeing a base in the $200k range and approximately 10% of their P&L, the portfolio’s current value minus its previous value.

Hedge funds that employ systematic trading strategies such as AQR Capital Management, Point72 Asset Management, Bridgewater Associates, Two Sigma Investments and Citadel are always on the lookout for good quantitative research, data science and trading talent, including Ph.D.s and experienced Silicon Valley executives.

“Hedge funds can choose to pay people much higher bonuses,” says Roberts. “They can go to guys at Google with millions in equity, employee stock options, and say ‘We guarantee we’ll pay you X bonus regardless of how well the firm does. The buy side is more creative by nature, and they typically hire the best of the best from the sell side and now increasingly Silicon Valley too.”

Victor Tang, a senior associate of quantitative analytics and risk in the financial services practice at The Execu|Search Group, a recruitment firm, says most firms prefer candidates with a Ph.D. in statistics, mathematics or computer science with experience working in C++ and Python programming languages.

Hedge funds will also hire candidates right after graduation. Tang said Two Sigma recently hired a candidate with a Ph.D. from Princeton and internships at Google and Apple at a hefty starting salary.

If a candidate’s got a Ph.D. in the right subject from Stanford, Caltech, MIT, NYU-Tandon or an Ivy League university and internships at Apple, Netflix, Google, Facebook or another Silicon Valley giant, then they will get an offer in the $350k range right off the bat, Tang says. With the right type of research, hedge funds will generally make a standard offer between $300k and $400k all in for recent Ph.D. graduates.

Quant hedge funds have been successful in hiring senior staff across from big tech firms in the past few months. Two Sigma, the hipster quant hedge fund that offers board games and a recording studio as a perk for its employees, made a big splash in 2015 when it hired Alfred Spector from Google as the Chief Technology Officer and head of the engineering organization.

Citadel in particular has been targeting these profiles in recently.

In the past couple of months the $150bn hedge fund has hired Li Deng as chief artificial intelligence officer from Microsoft, Laszlo Korsos, who recently left a senior position at troubled transportation and tech company Uber, where he worked on its famous surge-pricing algorithm, to join Citadel as a managing director and chief data officer in New York as well as a host of senior technologists from other banks and hedge funds.

But hiring senior technologists can be expensive and is not the most sustainable approach, so big quant funds are also trying to uncover talent by other means. Citadel is offering $25k prizes to students to compete in 18 ‘datathons’ aimed at uncovering the best student quants and Two Sigma partnered with data science platform Kaggle, offering $100k for the best machine learning algorithms – and raising their awareness of jobs in finance.

Photo credit: JasonDoiy/GettyImages
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13 sure-fire ways to write an outstanding compliance resume

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Compliance professionals have been in high demand globally since the financial crisis. Despite the advance of regulatory technology, vacancies continue to open up as banks grapple with new regulations and try to avoid billion-dollar fines.

But more people are also entering the sector as compliance roles become more interesting and lucrative. If you’re applying for a job in compliance, getting your CV in shape is a crucial way to fend off  the competition.

Here’s some expert advice on how to write the perfect compliance resume.

1. Don’t come across as a generalist

As compliance increasingly splinters off into different specialisms – from monitoring and surveillance to financial crime – it’s dangerous to write a one-size-fits-all resume. “A compliance CV that’s too generic risks being overlooked by a hiring manager, who wants specific details of sector coverage, jurisdictional exposure and longevity at top-tier banks,” says a London-based compliance recruiter. “If your CV focuses on the obvious and is too repetitive, you’ll come across as just another generalist.”

2. Add your IT skills to your compliance resume

“The addition of IT skills is now essential on a compliance CV,” says Leo Bellometti, a compliance consultant at recruitment agency Morgan McKinley. “The increase in specialised roles within compliance has also created a need for skills in specialised IT programmes, so highlighting these will benefit any application.”

3. Focus on regulatory relationships

“Employers are keen to see what and how much interaction you’ve had with the regulators, and how adept you are at interpreting and implementing current and upcoming regulations,” says James Findlay, a director at recruiters Selby Jennings.

4. Highlight your product knowledge

“Product-based compliance is becoming more prevalent as banks struggle to meet requirements laid out by new financial regulations,” says Findlay. “Listing your specific product knowledge pins you as a specialist in your field and allows you to have a greater shot at most front-office facing compliance roles, for example product-advisory compliance.”

5. STARS works well in compliance CVs

You can’t dazzle readers with your sales figures if you work in the middle office, so you need to carefully structure your achievements for each job. The STAR technique (situation, task, action, results), commonly used in job interview answers, works well in compliance CVs, says a middle-office recruiter at a global bank. For each achievement write one sentence on the ‘situation’ (i.e. the business need) and then add bullet points about the tasks you were accountable for and how you performed them. Finally, explain what you accomplished as a result – how you added value to your team and gained new skills.

6. Don’t clutter your CV with keywords

“I often receive CVs that have bullet point sections that just list a stream of compliance keywords without any context about how the candidate is skilled in those areas,” says Pathay Singh, managing director of recruitment agency Compliance Grid. “This makes it difficult for a bank to assess key competencies and can dilute the impact of your profile. You need to provide a narrative and examples to back up your skills.”

7. Don’t downplay your management skills

“One of the key areas that experienced compliance professionals consistently miss on their CVs is highlighting their management experience – this is one of the first questions that banks will enquire about,” says Singh. “You need to clearly state the number of direct reports you have as well as their level/titles. If you don’t have reports, provide examples of leading projects or contributing to leading the promotion of a ‘compliance culture’ throughout a business.”

8. Show how well you work with ‘the business’

As compliance policy becomes more critical to banks, jobs in the sector increasingly demand liaising with different departments and influencing their decision making. “Include details of your interaction with business stakeholders. You’re the contact between regulators and the bank, so effective communication is an essential soft skill,” says Orelia Chan, an associate director at Pure Search. Singh adds: “Clearly state which stakeholders you work with and how you’ve established strong relationships with them.”

9. Have the right hobbies 

“Your ability to work with the business comes in many forms – these days the reader of your CV is even looking at your interests and hobbies for evidence,” says the in-house recruiter at the global bank. “Travelling, music and reading are unlikely to set you apart, but if you have interests that highlight competencies such as team work, competitiveness, dedication or networking, they will be worthwhile additions to your compliance resume.”

10. Be careful if you’ve changed jobs a lot

Ideally your compliance resume should be full of lengthy tenures, but if not you need to give legitimate reasons for leaving each role and make it obvious if some of your jobs were contract positions. “Retention is a major issue for compliance managers,” explains the in-house recruiter. “And if you’re a manager yourself, add a sentence about how you’ve attracted and retained staff – that could add enormously to the reader’s perception of you.”

11. Local regulations matter on your compliance CV

While the compliance world is still aflutter with Basel III, FATCA and other regulations with a global reach, most banks like resumes that show a strong understanding of local regulations. “As a lot of regulations differ across countries, so it’s important to state exactly how familiar you are with the domestic regulatory scene,” says Chan from Pure.

12. And so do qualifications

If you have a compliance-related qualification, include it in your summary section at the top of your CV, don’t just bury it at the bottom underneath your university degree. “Just like having a CFA is important in other areas of finance, having an ICA or specific anti-money laundering training will set you apart,” says Findlay from Selby Jennings.

13. The summary section is vital in compliance resumes

You can highlight your compliance specialism from the get-go by writing a summary of your skills and experience at the top of your CV. “Don’t leave employers in any doubt that your product or functional coverage matches that of the job description,” says the London recruiter.


Image credit: zodebala, Getty

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Morning Coffee: The hottest new $100k job at Goldman Sachs for 20-somethings. This bank is hiring 700 people

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There’s been a paradigm shift at Goldman Sachs. Forget rhetoric from CEO Lloyd Blankfein on Goldman being a tech company, the bank is finally putting its money where its mouth is.

Goldman has hired in Andrew Trout, a Silicon Valley ‘fixer’ who can help the bank attract more of the technologists that it – and other banks – struggle to lure away from Facebook and Google. Goldman has made one important change – it’s upped pay. Specifically, programmers and engineers starting out at the bank can now expect a salary of $100k – up from $83k previously – and bonuses have risen from $12k to…something larger, according to a report on Bloomberg.

“Our intent is to be competitive for the best talent,” Elisha Wiesel, Goldman’s recently installed chief information officer who is behind the scheme told Bloomberg. “If we have to change our package, we’ll change our package.”

This puts Goldman’s entry level programmers above its analysts in the investment bank. Firs year analysts take home a salary of $83k, according to Glassdoor figures, rising to $154k after two or three years’ experience. In other words, engineers are now considered more valuable to Goldman than its entry level front office juniors.

Trout’s methods for getting hold of new tech talent seems relatively simple. For a start, he will advise the bank on which campuses to scour to find the best engineers and, at a more experienced level, it will work out a way of targeting technology professionals outside of the financial sector.

If you’re interested, Goldman will then test your programming prowess using HackerRank, a website that tests and grades people’s coding skills, and CoderPad, which interviews candidates in a live programming scenario. Much like it’s new personality test, Goldman’s interviews will also focus more on the interviewee’s interests and skills, rather than trying to fit them into jobs directly. Wiesel said he wants to infuse a sense of “culture” in the tech team, and help it work closer with the business.

Separately, Moelis & Co, the boutique investment bank, is on a massive hiring drive. It has plans to double headcount, according to an interview in Financial News with its founder Ken Moelis. Right now, it has 700 people, meaning that it could potentially have 1,400 deal-makers in the future. Not everyone is convinced this is the greatest idea. “Doubling is easy,” one London-based European banking head told FN. The hard part is ensuring that headcount is profitable.

“Businesses like Moelis grow via headcount expansion, so at what point do you start to see limits to scale?” said another bank analyst.

Meanwhile: 

Deutsche Bank has shaken up its U.S. investment bank again. Tom Patrick, the head of its equities business, will lead its Americas operation. This is the third change in 18 months. (WSJ)

“I do feel that as a man, I get odd looks if I leave early because of a childcare or school issue. I have been asked, ‘Can’t your wife do it?’ on occasion (she has a career too!).” (Financial News)

Are workers without kids really taking up the slack? (BBC)

RBS is cutting 20% of its IT workers in London (Financial Times)

A London stock exchange employee has died after falling from a first floor balcony (Financial Times)

Quant hedge funds are losing out to humans (Business Insider)

Is the next quant meltdown coming (Institutional Investor)

Here’s what Larry Page should have said to James Damore (Economist)

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Citi MD: “AI and robotics can create an opportunity for new, more innovative jobs in banks”

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Citi’s Sanjeev Behl believes the banking sector is currently going through a transition phase in the types of talent it hires.

“As technology and digitisation have transformed the banking industry, the types of roles and talent we need will evolve as well. Some people in our industry are performing tasks that are below their real abilities – this means we’re not making full use of their skills, and this is a waste of valuable resources,” says Behl, Asia Pacific Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions Client Operations, and Global Head of Trade Operations at Citi.

But Behl says there are potential solutions to this emerging problem: robotics process automation (RPA) – with further enhancements in due course through artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning. There are other automation options that are coming up as well, which would support these simpler, more mechanical tasks to be performed by machines.

Citi is actively involved with multiple automation initiatives, including RPA/AI evaluation with its operations processes. Behl’s department, for example, has been working on robotic process automation and the initial stages of a few other AI initiatives. For example, one of the initiatives launched this year is a RPA pilot automating trade import payments in India and China which will help achieve a significant reduction in manual processes, resulting in a large improvement in basic-tasks turnaround time.

“The next frontier in driving operational efficiency is through these automation options, like RPA and at a later stage with machine learning. At Citi, we are increasingly using these to take on routine and manual tasks,” says Singapore-based Behl. “The jobs we have will require different skills as a result – they’ll be for the best of the best.”

“The effect of automation on jobs in the banking industry will only be positive. Gen Y and Z, in particular, don’t actually want to do the type of jobs that we want digitisation and automation to perform. They don’t think that manual transcribing of data from one source (paper or digital) into a system or application, for example, is exciting and they’d rather be working on something more innovative at Citi,” he says.

New skills learning and up-tiering current skill sets are important components of talent development. In some markets, governments are already putting initiatives in place to strengthen their workforce’s motivation to re-skill, upskill and acquire new skills. The Singapore government, for example, has an initiative that promotes the upgrading of skills and knowledge of its people, with the aim of building a more resilient workforce that can adapt as job roles and technology in the financial services industry evolve.

“So, while people’s jobs will change because of all the automation like robotics, that doesn’t mean an equal number of people will become redundant,” says Behl. “As part of this transition, a number of jobs at Citi will move up the value chain as the bank continues to drive innovation – by which I mean become more interesting and important – especially those in design, development and in my area, operations delivery and service.”

“As an illustration, we’ll soon see new types of operations specialists, who will monitor the robots and ensure they are performing as they are designed to perform. I use the analogy of air traffic control – the technology keeps improving in that field, but you still need human controllers to keep a close watch on the radar screens and take vital decisions to ensure safety of all the planes in the sky,” says Behl.

“RPA/AI is still at the very initial stages of its evolution, and will need some time to mature as a fully commercialised tool/practice. The risk and controls around these technologies are in the process of being developed and tried, and hence Citi is highly focused on the required control steps and oversight functions integral to these processes, supported by the new technologies.”

Behl says there will also be increased demand in the near future for machine-focused change managers. “If you make a key change through an automation of a process you’ve developed, you need people to ensure that it always performs as expected and that contingency plans are in place, no matter which other elements in the wider ecosystem may go through their planned or unplanned changes,” he explains.

Such automated solutions can also have a positive effect on front-office roles in banking. “When I hear from the front-office about their challenges, they often relate to not having enough time to serve clients as they’d like,” says Behl. “With greater reliability and scalability, combined with faster turnaround times, automation frees up more time for our people to spend with clients.”

Behl says automated solutions, including RPA/AI, have the power to make all areas of the bank communicate more seamlessly and better with one another. This again helps improve the overall atmosphere in the organisation and support the key objective of a common purpose and goal to offer the best solutions to clients.

“Banks typically operate several large legacy platforms in each different business vertical. And after many years of separate development, it’s very complicated, time-consuming and expensive to build pipes connecting them all together into one cohesive IT system,” he says. “The advent of non-intrusive technologies helps us overcome these challenges.”

Citi may not be the only company striving to develop more innovative technology to help its employees and customers. But Behl says the working environment at Citi helps set it apart from both established tech giants striving to get into the banking domain as well as start-ups in the battle for talent.

“Compared to a small fintech company, we have a much broader client base – from financial institutions to mid- and large-sized companies – and a huge presence in global capital markets. And we have a very loyal and happy retail client base as well. So we truly know what a very wide and demanding market segment wants in terms of new innovations,” says Behl. “The banking industry is also heavily regulated, and that means that when we launch new initiatives, they have gone through stringent legal, compliance and risk reviews.”

Citi can also offer wider potential career opportunities than a tech company. “At Citi, for example, you could move from a coding job to become a project manager, operations or service specialist, or even a product or credit/relationship manager in our front-office,” he adds.

But Behl says Citi can’t be complacent with its innovation drive if it wants to keep on hiring and retaining the best people.

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Image credit: Zapp2Photo, Getty




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The 10 most desirable finance jobs in the City of London in 2017

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The Brexodus from the City of London has supposedly begun, but throughout 2017 there are two areas of the financial sector that have continued to attract a huge amount of applications – private equity and hedge funds.

The quest for a buy-side role, particular among junior banking professionals, has continued throughout 2017. The pressures on investment banks to move functions out of the UK after Brexit has only intensified the competition for roles.

Our figures suggest that an average of 97 people applied for every hedge fund jobs over a 30-day period throughout this year. There were also 85 applicants for every private equity role. By comparison, just 67 people chased every available investment banking role, 66 applied for sell-side equity research jobs and 81 tried to get a trading job.


But which were the most intensely fought-over roles throughout 2017 so far in London? These 10 jobs received more attention than any others.

1. Investment banking graduate analyst

It’s rare that an investment bank recruits beyond its regular careers page for graduate roles, but this one was unique – and more honest than most. Candidates needed either an economics, finance or computer science degree, preferably first class (most banks ask for a 2.1 minimum) and some banking experience – but no more than two years in the industry. The bank was recruiting for multiple roles outside of the regular grad hiring cycle – it was, understandably, popular.

2. Corporate finance analyst, boutique investment bank

Again, within the London sweet spot of around two years in investment banking, the role also looked for bulge bracket experience and an analyst keen to work within a small team of 15 investment bankers. The selling point of any boutique role is exposure to clients, which this role promised in abundance.

3. Data analyst, $10bn hedge fund

This hedge fund has supposedly grown rapidly over the past five years and now manages $10bn. Tapping into the trend to hire quantitative data scientist, this role which asked for a couple of years experience, wasn’t lacking in applicants despite a supposed shortage of people in this area.

4. Associate, private equity fund of funds

The glamour of private equity laid bare – one of the key requirements here was top notch PowerPoint presentation skills and an ability to crunch numbers for client presentations in Excel. The buy-side is always keenly fought over at the entry level, and that’s because of what the career can offer down the line. As well as the admin, the role promised exposure to clients, which is a big selling point of PE.

5. Entry level trader, £1bn hedge fund

This is more of a trading assistant role, and was pitched as an opportunity to move up the ladder and work as a ‘number two’, shadowing one of the hedge fund’s top traders. A £50k salary might not be everyone’s idea of hedge fund riches, but there’s also the potential for a 100% bonus, which is good for more of a support role and there’s also the chance to move into a trading role later.

6. Research analyst, asset management

MiFID II is, of course, making life more difficult for sell-side analysts as investment banks struggle to work out how they’re going to price and produce research once the buy-side has to pay for it directly. Working for a fund manager directly is seen as an escape route and this role, asking for up to three years’ experience on either the buy- or sell-side, was highly sought-after.

7. Multi-asset dealer

Fancy working for a fund manager executing trades across time zones in Asia-Pacific and the Americas from a London base? This role executing trades and acting as a point of separation between portfolio managers and dealers. Experience in foreign exchange, cash equities, bonds and all associated derivatives was required.

8. Investment analyst

An expansionary fund manager looking for a junior recruit in London proved to be one of the most successful job adverts so far in 2017. Deal execution, modelling and portfolio administration were all part of the job, together with the chance to work under the wing of a big name portfolio manager.

9. Commodities derivatives trader

Commodities traders have had a tough time over the past few years, with revenues in the doldrums at most investment banks, and cost-cutting ongoing over the past three years at least. Not surprisingly, independent trading houses have proven to be a popular escape route. This role, focused on OTC derivative trading with the agricultural and softs markets, was the most popular commodities role this year.

10. Long/short equity analyst

Another hedge fund role, this time looking for a CFA-qualified analyst willing to work alongside a small team of portfolio managers. Sell-side experience was desirable, which would have helped its appeal.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Investment banks are in poaching war to bring in senior technology talent

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Call it a self-imposed deadline, but most investment banks want bums on seats within their technology functions before a code freeze in the final quarter of the year. The result is that the past few weeks have seen a flurry of poaching at the top.

The merry-go-round of chief information officers, chief technology officers and innovators within investment banks has taken off. Investment banks might be positioning themselves as technology companies – Goldman Sachs is pushing to attract IT professionals from Silicon Valley – but when it comes to moves at the top they’re just hiring from each other.

Michael Grimaldi, the CIO of Deutsche Bank’s investment bank, has just joined J.P. Morgan in a role that covers its markets business and leading its EMEA technology business. But this big hire is the tip of the iceberg.

“The final quarter is when banks freeze code, freeze headcount and start planning for the year ahead,” says Paul Bennie, managing director at headhunters Bennie McLean, which hires CIOs into banking roles. “Summer therefore tends to be busy.”

J.P. Morgan has hired another senior technologist, this time in New York. Derek Jean-Baptiste, a technology fellow and head of prime services client technology at Goldman Sachs, joined as a managing director earlier this month. Jean-Baptiste had spent the best part of 14 years at Goldman, having joined in May 2004 from software firm Concentra. Heather Beckman, another senior Goldman technologist, also joined J.P. Morgan as CTO for its treasury business earlier this year.

Barclays has also been actively hiring senior people in technology. Gary Smolyanskiy, who oversaw Goldman Sachs’ cloud infrastructure, has joined as Americas head of technology infrastructure services at Barclays in New York. Nick Doddy, the European managing director of group technology and operation (GTO) strategy and innovation team at Deutsche Bank, also joined Barclays as a managing director within its business architecture division.

Of all the investment banks, Deutsche has arguably been losing the largest number of technology leaders. As well as Doddy and Grimaldi, Ashu Joglekar, its head of global credit and flow rates IT, left earlier this month to join Wells Fargo. He joins as head of its core risk technology platform.

Deutsche has been filling some holes, however. Shel Xu, who was head of trade management technology at Credit Suisse, joined Deutsche Bank as a managing director in June.

All of these hires show that it’s still important to have a background in investment banking to make it to the top in technology. Investment banks are increasingly trying to lure expertise across from large technology companies, ans are stepping up their efforts.

Goldman Sachs said that it had hired a Silicon Valley ‘fixer’ called Andrew Trout to help attract people across from large technology companies. It has increased entry level salaries to $100k, and started interviews based on skills rather than trying to fit people into job titles. J.P. Morgan’s investment bank CIO, Lori Beer, told us previously that it successfully hires staff from large technology firm.

But banks are still reliant on their competitors for tech talent. “Banks’ internal recruits talk about the need to recruit from the likes of Google, but the reality is that it’s still a struggle for them,” says another banking IT recruiter.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

Image credit: Getty

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Nine jobs Wall Street banks are struggling to fill this summer

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If you’re looking for a new financial services job and you want an immediate response, then you might want to avoid private equity, which attracts a huge overabundance of candidates. Instead, why not focus your search on the jobs banks can’t seem to fill, especially if you have a niche skill-set?

Based on banks’ own job sites, we’ve assembled a list of jobs in New York that have been advertised for at least two or three months, although some have been vacant for as many as five. If you apply for any these roles and you fit the prerequisites, then you can be assured that the bank will get back to you. The only downside is that you may not fit the requirements – there’s a reason these roles have remained unfilled for so long.

1. Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is hiring a structurer and a capital markets associate for the real estate financing group (REFG) within the IBD in New York, despite the fact that the majority of that group is based in Irving, Texas.

Successful candidates will work on the bank’s commercial mortgage platform and be trained for a wider set of FINRA licenses than other associate-level IBD financing group analysts. Translation? You’ll have to pass the Series 7, Series 79 and Series 63 exams.

2. J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan Treasury Services (TS) is looking for a managing director or senior executive director to lead client engagements globally and make key cash concentration and liquidity structuring deals.

To qualify, you need to have 10-plus years of experience and a deep knowledge of corporate treasuries, cash concentration services and related corporate governance models.

3. Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is looking for a senior associate or junior vice president with superior valuation skills and at least five years of TMT experience to join the media and communications investment banking team.

You’ll need to be able to play up your past work on mergers and acquisitions, demergers, divestitures, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, shareholder relations, recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts and defenses against unsolicited takeover attempts, strategic advisory assignments and executions of public and private capital markets transactions. While not required, having an MBA, CA or CFA designation is preferred.

4. Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Bank of America Merrill Lynch wants to hire a senior quant analyst with at least 10 years of experience who specializes in the evaluation of private equity and real assets fund managers. They’re looking for a candidate with an MBA, MS or JD plus a CFA.

You’ll have to pass the Series 7, 63 and 65 – or the Series 7 and 66 – soon after you start if you haven’t already.

5. Citigroup

Citi is searching for a director-level financial technology investment banker, preferably with an MBA and seven-plus years of capital raising and M&A advisory and execution experience in the fintech sector.

You’ll need to highlight your past work on M&A deals, divestitures, financial restructurings, underwriting and distributing equity, debt and derivative securities.

5. UBS

UBS is on a hunt for a global corporate client solutions (CCS) marketing strategist to serve as the head of investment banking Americas marketing, who will report directly to the global head of culture and client marketing.

To get the job, you need to be able to demonstrate an outstanding track record of delivering innovative marketing programs across a variety of internal and external channels, with predefined, measurable results. You also need extensive experience in content marketing, digital and relationship marketing.

7. Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse is on the lookout for an M&A vice president in the sell-side group within the investment banking and capital markets division.

To land the job, you’ll need at least four years of relevant deal experience in M&A and capital raising, as you’ll be expected to assist in the origination of sell-side and divestiture M&A transactions, as well as financial modeling, data analysis marketing, due diligence, valuation, financial analysis and negotiations. You must have an MBA or equivalent graduate degree.

8. Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is looking to hire a senior associate or VP-level U.S equity research analyst who will specialize in the automotive sector.

You’ll need an MBA and several years of experience in either sell-side equity research, investment banking, private equity or investment management.

9. Barclays

Barclays wants to add a corporate banker to serve as an asset management director within the financial institutions group to provide strategic relationship management for U.S. buy-side clients. The role will be 60% sales and customer service, 30% risk management and control, and 10% teamwork and mentoring junior bankers.

You’ll need at least eight years of experience of managing and growing an asset manager corporate banking business, and you’ll have to demonstrate the ability to source and execute bi-lateral and multi-bank deals.

Photo credit: DNY59/GettyImages
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The activist hedge fund hiring bankers and offering a promotion in the process

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Sachem Head Capital Management, the activist hedge fund set up by Bill Ackman protégé Scott Ferguson, has been hiring from investment banks and offering new recruits promotions in the process.

Alex Birdall, a director in Credit Suisse’s capital services team, a division within within its prime services division which serves hedge fund clients, has just joined Sachem Head as a managing director within its marketing and investor relations team in New York. He worked at Credit Suisse for over seven years, having joined from UBS in June 2010.

Meanwhile, Euan Stevenson, who was a director in Barclays capital introductions team, has also joined Sachem Head as a managing director. Stevenson spent 12 years at Barclays, initially working within its wealth management division on hedge fund due diligence, before moving across to its investment bank. Again, the capital introductions team at Barclays is a sales function that sits within its prime broking division.

Sachem Head has around $4.5bn in assets under management and was set up by Scott Ferguson in July 2013. Ferguson joined Pershing Square Capital as an analyst in September 2003, and spent 13 years working with its founder and chief executive Bill Ackman.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Here’s what Goldman, J.P. Morgan, BAML and Morgan Stanley pay in the U.S.

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How much do you earn at big U.S. investment bank on Wall Street? Is there really any difference between the likes of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley or Bank of America Merrill Lynch? Yes, depending on your level of seniority.

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley all made the top 10 list of companies that U.S. finance professionals would ideally want to work for, based on an eFinancialCareers survey. We’ve now compiled salary data for those four banks for analysts, associates, vice presidents, directors and managing directors in the U.S.

BAML lags behind its three competitors in terms of base salary, according to Glassdoor, with the notable exception of VPs, where the firm is actually higher than the other banks we looked at. That, combined with the fact that there was no data for executive director salaries, indicates that BAML may give pay raises to their highest-performing VPs rather than promoting them to the more prestigious director title.

By contrast, Morgan Stanley’s VPs appear to be the lowest paid of these four banks in terms of base salary, but the higher ranges of its executive director and managing director salaries are quite competitive, according to Glassdoor.

J.P. Morgan appears to pay its top analysts very well, but its managing directors are not as well-compensated as some rivals, according to Glassdoor.

It is no surprise that Goldman’s salaries appear to be quite competitive, with its associates and managing directors the highest paid of the four banks we analyzed. The one exception is the fact that its executive directors appear to be underpaid, an anomaly that can likely be attributed to a small data set for that particular job title.

Now that you know who pays the most at each of these levels in the U.S., navigate your banking career accordingly. In fact, if your salary is below the average pay for your job title, it might be time to ask for a raise.

Photo credit: hjalmeida/iStock/Thinkstock

Morning Coffee: The toughest job to get in finance. Secret pressures of banker dads

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Investment banks are not great at gender diversity. For all the returnships, onsite crèches and mentoring schemes, women still comprise just 25% of senior roles.

Compared to hedge funds, however, banks are approaching Star Trek levels of societal harmony. Women portfolio managers are out numbered by 20:1 and control less than 1% of assets under management in the industry, according to the FT. 439 hedge funds have a female portfolio manager, while 9,081 have men in the role.

Paul Tudor Jones’ 2013 comments that mothers can’t be top traders certainly don’t help the situation, and tales of women who have made it to the top show just how big a sacrifice they’ve made. The old boys’ network is slowing being dragged towards the 21st century, however. Hedge funds such as D.E. Shaw are rolling out schemes to help more women both start out on the buy-side or return to the industry after time out raising children, says the FT.

But, as Barbara Ann Bernard, founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Wincrest Capital, pointed out to the FT, while there’s a need to address the shortage of women in larger funds, the real issues start when they attempt to go it alone.

“There need to be examples,” she adds. “And every time a woman starts a fund, she sparks hope. To me it’s a bit frustrating that everyone says there is a lack of [women-led] funds out there. There aren’t, lots of women are trying, but institutional money needs to come in earlier.”

Luke Ellis CEO of Man Group insists these moves are not about “box ticking”. “It is simply about hiring and keeping the best people,” he told the FT.

Separately, while there’s no shortage of men in the financial sector, there’s one section of the population that feels neglected, stretched and…guilty – fathers.

In a series of interviews with dads in City jobs, Financial News suggests that they’re faced with pressures and prejudices.

“I work remotely one day a week. But I had to fight to get it, and three years on I have to fight to keep it as the usual nonsense comments about my ‘day off’ still prevail,” said one.

Being a supportive father is difficult: “Quote from son number two last night: ‘I know you have to be there when you’re trading, but you’ve never seen me play cricket or football for the school.'”

The pressure to keep earning high salaries means that many are unlikely to quit, but the attitude among financial services firms is rubbing off: “I would strongly dissuade my children from seeking a career in the City,” said another dad.

Meanwhile:

Goldman Sachs is making a renewed push into trading corporate bonds electronically (Financial Times)

Millennium Capital Management has lost another portfolio manager (HFM)

Frankfurt resident’s don’t want bankers (WSJ)

John Crompton, the former global head of corporate finance at HSBC, has gone into fintech (Financial News)

“It took almost 80 years after 1930 to have another financial crisis that could have been of that magnitude. And now after 10 years everybody wants to go back to a status quo before the great financial crisis. And I find that really extremely dangerous and extremely short-sighted.” (Business Insider)

Gary Cohn is reportedly “disgusted” by Trump’s response on Charlottesville (Business Insider)

Jamie Dimon has also strongly condemned the President Trump’s comments (Financial News)

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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This senior HSBC banker has just moved out of London to head an investment bank in Greece

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A senior Greek investment banker at HSBC, who spent much of his career in London, has just returned home to lead the corporate and investment bank of the National Bank of Greece.

Vassilis Karamouzis, who spent over eight years at HSBC latterly as head of asset finance origination for Southern Europe and head of capital financing for Greece  and Cyprus, has just taken the role as head of the corporate and investment bank at the National Bank of Greece. Before his latest role at HSBC, he was head of global markets sales and debt capital markets at HSBC for Greece and Cyprus.

He joined HSBC in June 2009 after more than six years at Deutsche Bank in London where he worked in hedge fund sales and later a global markets role focused on both Greece and the Middle East.

While working for the National Bank of Greece may seem like a huge leap from a senior job at a large investment bank like HSBC, Karamouzis’ duties are vastly expanded. He will over see activity with large corporates, investment banking deals, structured finance and syndication deals.

London has a big population of Greek bankers working in senior roles across the City. While other nationalities like French and German are better represented in London’s banking sector, our own figures suggests that Greek bankers comprise 1.27% of those working in investment banking roles in London. This figure might seem small, but of the 2,300 Greek speakers on the eFinancialCareers database who work in investment banking, 37% of them are in London.

The flow of European bankers from London after the Brexit vote may be more of a trickle than a flood, but EU nationals are either scrambling to secure a new role and permanent residency before the UK potentially ends the freedom of movement in March 2019. Recruiters Morgan McKinley said this week that the conversation had shifted from ‘if’ bankers need to leave London to ‘when’ they should think about going.

Large investment banks have made public announcements about moving jobs out of the UK after Brexit, with Frankfurt likely to be the main beneficiary. Initially, it’s likely to be trading jobs that currently rely on access to EU markets from London. However, London also serves as a central hub for investment bankers covering EU markets from the UK. It seems likely that many of these jobs will shift too as the UK’s financial sector becomes less centralised.

Karamouzis is also the latest banker to depart from HSBC, which said in January that it was cutting 100 people within its investment bank, largely in the senior ranks. Ben Katz, who was head of DCM for the financial institutions group for the U.S. and co-head of HSBC’s financing solutions group for the Americas, left in February and has just launched his own boutique.

James Simpson, the former co-head of advisory for EMEA at HSBC, teamed up with Matteo Canonaco, the former head of financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and IPC coverage at the bank, to launch a private equity boutique called DuCanon Capital Partners.

Meanwhile, Ben Leonard, co-head of UK FIG banking at HSBC, left earlier this year. He has just launched a fintech firm called META, which looks to bridge the gap between technology firms and financial institutions. Meanwhile, its former head of corporate finance, John Crompton, has just joined fintech firm Issufy as chairman of the advisory board.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Inside the new London investment banking graduate programme

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Most investment banks in London are scaling back their graduate recruitment programmes, and struggling to attract applications from top students who are gravitating towards consulting and technology. But Santander, which has around 400 people working for its corporate and investment bank in London, has stepped up efforts to hire more people and is trying to attract graduates to a new programme to feed junior talent into its UK operation.

Two years ago, Santander did not even have a graduate programme for its corporate and investment bank, despite building out this division in the UK. Now, it’s trying to compete with large investment banks for top graduates in London.

“Whilst we’ve expanded our investment bank in the UK over the past few years, our graduate programme was still very much focused on commercial banking and specialist functions like HR and marketing,” says Rebecca Cook, an executive director in Santander Global Corporate Banking in London. “We wanted to change this by starting a graduate programme, dedicated to the needs of our global corporate bank, but doing so in a sustainable way.”

Big U.S. investment banks take on hundreds of graduates every year. By comparison, Santander’s programme is tiny. It’s hiring six graduates this year and has seven interns in its summer class currently. But these places are still highly-contested. Santander’s new graduate programme attracted 2,000 applications this year, suggesting a less than 1% chance of getting in.

Despite the relatively small size of the programme, Cook tells us that it’s not staffed with intern conversions. Five interns were offered places last year, and three accepted. Of the six full-time analysts joining this year, two came through the internship programme.

This is a stark contrast to large investment banks, which are closing full-time applications ever-earlier and offering more places to interns. J.P. Morgan has filled its front office investment banking graduate jobs with interns for the past three years, while Morgan Stanley closed its investment banking and markets divisions grad programmes on 31 July – before most banks opened their schemes to applications.

“In the first year, there was a clear leaning towards hiring economics and finance students, but we’re making a conscious effort to hire from more diverse backgrounds,” says Cook. “This year, we have languages and classics students in the internship. The idea is that the intensive training programme at the outset should equip them with the skills to become a banker.”

In London, Santander offers debt capital markets and cash management services and also has a markets business. Graduate recruits are not assigned a desk immediately, but instead spend two years rotating around the key business areas at the bank including the private coverage side of the business, public markets, business management and client coverage.

If you make it through the initial screening process, Santander will invite you to an assessment centre. Cook says that potential recruits are subject to interviews with at least six investment bankers at various levels of seniority. Half the day is spent on a group exercise with their peers, which consists of a case study to be presented to senior bankers followed by a Q&A.

Cook says that the relatively new nature of the scheme has ensured that there’s a “real willingness of our executives to spend time with the graduates”.

“All the graduates have a desk manager on their various rotations, as well as a graduate manager that provides consistency throughout the two-year programme, and they have an analyst ‘buddy’ closer to them in age that can provide peer group support,” she says.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Standard Chartered has just hired a global head for digital banking

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Standard Chartered has hired Pedro Sousa Cardoso as global head of group digital, based in Singapore.

He joined Stan Chart earlier this month from Emirates NBD, where he worked for more than five years, latterly as head of multichannel, CRM and digital transformation, according to his public profile.

Stan Chart confirmed the appointment, which will be officially announced by the bank on Friday.

While Stan Chart has been thinning out its management ranks since 2015, it has been investing heavily in digital banking and technology, including hiring about 300 technologists last year in Singapore as part of a $300m global tech upgrade.

It is not the only Asia-focused bank beefing up its digital ranks, however. Earlier this year Tamara van den Ban joined HSBC in Hong Kong as head of digital products for Asia Pacific. HSBC digital banking is now hiring across several functions in Hong Kong – including product managers, developers and content producers – van den Ban told us earlier this week.

Sousa Cardoso was a member of the retail leadership team at Emirates NBD and led digital strategy for online and mobile banking, ATM banking, phone banking, branch automation, and tablet banking.

Prior to Emirates NBD – from 2009 to 2011 – he was a principal member of the senior management team at Saxo Bank in London and Copenhagen, primarily tasked with developing and deploying a new wealth management platform.

Sousa Cardoso is a digital banking veteran. He began his career at Banco Espírito Santo (now Novo Banco) in his native Portugal in 1994 and worked in a newly-created direct banking and e-business department, playing a “key role” in launching telephone and online banking services, according to his profile.

He moved to digital bank Banco Best, which is part owned by Novo Banco, in 2001 as a Lisbon-based founder member of the start-up team. During 10 years at the firm, his responsibilities included digital strategy, online and mobile banking, banking products, and digital marketing.


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The qualifications you need to make it in investment banking now

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Investment banks have never been overly big on formal qualifications, but the new breed of recruit is more focused than ever on academic excellence than ever.

In an advisory function in investment banking, historically qualifications would have been secondary to connections and the university you attended. This is changing – not only has the financial crisis highlighted a need for higher professional standards in banking, but graduates being hired are doing more than ever to stand out from the competition.

Now, those securing the plum jobs in investment banking have multiple internships, they have Masters in Finance degrees, they have led investment societies at university and have often taken it upon themselves to start the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams.

Our own research – based on analysis of 1.4m finance professionals on our CV database – shows that junior investment bankers being hired are better qualified than those at the top now. The figures below relate to those working in IBD functions.

34% of analysts have either an MSc in Finance or Masters degree, compared to 22% of managing directors. 28% of associates also have Masters degrees, but the proportion of people equipped with post-graduate qualifications declines as investment bankers become more senior.

MBAs have become more marginalised in investment banking. While there’s a debate about who dumped who, the fact is that banks are hiring fewer MBAs as they focus on training more analysts and MBAs are choosing to go into other sectors. There are, of course, very few analysts who possess an MBA, but no more than a quarter of people on our database at any level have the qualification under their belt.

Meanwhile, studying for the CFA level I qualification is increasingly common among university students, but it’s still a marginal qualification in investment banking. 19-20% of juniors have embarked on the CFA, but just 10% of those in MD roles possess a CFA qualification. This suggests either that technical know-how is more of a launchpad for your career than a key to progression, or that the CFA wasn’t so popular when MDs started out.

Accountants in IBD roles (M&A and capital markets) were once a relatively common sight, but not the route into the front office is tougher. No more than 7% of front office employees on our database possess an accounting qualification.


Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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UBS loses senior quant risk specialists as juniorisation hits the middle office

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In theory, senior risk managers who can help banks with model validation are hot property. A surge in regulatory demands has meant that investment banks have been scrambling to hire quantitative risk managers, and front office expertise – particularly structuring – has been seconded across to meet demand.

However, at UBS in New York, some of the most senior risk professionals in this area have been quietly moved on. And, recruitment sources suggest, this is down to juniorisation of the ranks.

Paul Shotton, deputy head of portfolio risk control and head of group risk methodology at UBS, left the bank earlier this year and has recently signed up to CRISIL Global Research & Analytics. The firm provides research and risk analytics to both banks and buy-side firms. Shotton has joined as global head of risk and analytics.

Shotton is a big figure in the model risk management space. He was responsible for the oversight of all market and credit risk taken in UBS’s investment bank, wealth management and asset management businesses. Before joining UBS in October 2008, he was global head of market risk management at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Meanwhile, Nikolai Kukharkin, global head of model risk management and control at UBS in New York, has also departed, according to recruiters with knowledge of the move. Kukharkin has been with UBS since 2003, having joined from J.P. Morgan’s risk model validation team, where he was a VP. He has yet to land at a new employer.

Specialist risk recruiters suggest that recent senior departures at UBS are down to a ‘delayering’ of senior quantitative risk managers at the bank, with expensive managing directors being displaced in order to both save on costs and provide opportunities for directors in the group.

These senior departures at UBS come at a time when demand is picking up for senior risk professionals with an understanding of model validation.

Model validation is an increasingly hot area in investment banking as firms deal with the requirements of Basel IV regulation, which stop them frm using their own risk models for calculations of credit risk. Instead, the regulations are pushing for increased standardisation, meaning that those with the quantitative ability for middle office validation are increasingly in demand.

Barclays has been hiring in this area. Patrick Chen, the former global head of the model review group at Morgan Stanley, joined Barclays as a managing director in New York. He spent eight years at Morgan Stanley, joining from Lehman Brothers, where he was global head of credit risk. Chen follows Eduardo Canabarro, the global head of risk analytics at Morgan Stanley, who joined Barclays in May last year as global head of model validation in New York.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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My career path from HFT cop to investment banker to hedge fund PM to data startup

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John Collins had a baptism by fire when he started out in finance. As an investigator for NYSE Euronext tracking tick data for suspicious trading, he was working at the exchange in 2007 when the infamous ‘quant meltdown’ kicked off, which was swiftly followed by the Bear Stearns’ and Lehman Brothers’ collapse of 2008 and then the financial crisis that followed. After three years, he decided that it was high time he took time out to study an MBA.

“Those events, among others, created a wildly dynamic regulatory landscape that has only recently returned to something approaching a steady state,” Collins, who is a co-founder of artificial intelligence and data startup, Thasos Group, says.

But those experiences also stoked his interest in finance and investment management. Collins decided to enter MIT Sloan’s two-year MBA program, where he worked with the Center for Collective Intelligence to assess the impact of social sentiment on the stock market, specifically publicly listed renewable energy companies. He coded a fully automated trading system to test the sentiment signals with live capital.

“My trading system placed real-money trades for me while I attended classes,” Collins says. “After some early successes, I wrote a whitepaper describing my strategy and results and circulated it among my finance and hedge fund contacts, which eventually ended up in the hands of my soon-to-be Thasos co-founders, Greg Skibiski and Wei Pan.

Thasos is an artificial intelligence platform that turns location data from mobile phones into insights that can inform trading decisions. It is one of the plethora of new firms looking to tap into hedge funds’ appetite for third-party data to inform trading decisions during the current era of low volatility that is leaving so many hedge funds reeling.

Before landing there in 2015, however, Collins decided to join Credit Suisse’s financial sponsors group in New York as an associate. But, despite closing seven transactions during his 12 months there, the idea of returning to coding and trading systems was too much to resist.

“After my investment experience at MIT and on the sell-side, it was clear to me where my interests were strongest,” he said. “I had found nothing more intellectually rewarding than transforming large-scale data exhaust from disparate businesses – social media, location and web-scraped data – into actionable alpha signals that increased transparency into the fundamentals of publicly traded companies.”

This was in 2013. In the early days, Collins wrote approximately half of the code base for the Thasos technology platform and geofenced stores and other locations of interest. He also managed a $1m portfolio for the company to build a track record on trading its location-based alpha signals.

In 2015, Thasos executed a two-part deal with its first major hedge fund client, a New York-based firm with $10bn-plus under management for project-based research and forecasting work, as well as the creation of a $50m managed account over which Thasos had full discretion. All investment decisions were based on its location data alpha signals.

After closing the deal, Thasos moved from Boston to New York, where Collins became portfolio manager for the $50m managed account with an event-driven equities long-short strategy, while also doing data analysis for the hedge fund. After seven months, the managed account was performing well enough that the hedge fund doubled the AUM to $100m.

There was a fierce debate among the co-founders about whether to commit to being a fund manager and try to grow AUM or make its technology platform and location data insights available to a broad range of clients. They opted for the latter.

Collins transitioned from a location data analyst and hedge fund PM using location data alpha signals to chief product officer catering to the data needs of hedge fund clients.

“Working onsite at the fund for a full year provided me with invaluable daily feedback from other PMs regarding what types of location data signals were most valuable for their investment processes and how the location data should be structured for efficient use,” Collins says.

Photo courtesy of Thasos
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Morning Coffee: Banker broke the law for love and money. The danger of disagreeing with your bank’s CEO

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If a banker keeps passing handwritten notes to his girlfriend, but they’re all addressed to her father, then you know something’s not quite right.

Rather than flirty banter or expressions of love, a technology consultant in Bank of America Merrill Lynch allegedly passed illicit stock tips to the man he hoped would one day become his father-in-law.

Daniel Rivas, a project consultant in Bank of America’s capital markets technology group, had access to a deal-tracking system that contained data about corporate transactions, including impending mergers, acquisitions and tender offers. He allegedly illegally leaked information about “dozens” of unannounced M&A deals on which brokerage controller James Moodhe traded, according to Bloomberg. Prosecutors say that was part of a larger insider-trading scheme involving ex-Morgan Stanley employee Michael Siva and at least four other friends.

Rivas and Moodhe have both snitched on those former friends who are also accused of trading on the leaks, says Bloomberg. The overlapping insider-trading rings made about $5m in profits for the participants.

The indictment alleges: “As the romantic relationship between Rivas and the daughter progressed, so did the frequency with which Rivas and Moodhe spent time together. On dozens of occasions between 2014 and 2017, Rivas divulged inside information to Moodhe, orally and in writing. The defendants took advantage of an insider at an investment bank to make millions in illegal profits, trading more than 50 times in advance of confidential corporate information. The defendants allegedly used code words and encrypted messages to try to avoid law enforcement detection.”

If true, the scheme was especially brazen – some would say stupid – given the years-long government crackdown on insider trading that’s led to dozens of convictions.

BofA Merrill fired Rivas in April and was then hired by RBC Capital Markets, which subsequently suspended him this week.

Rivas didn’t use paper notes with his friends who lived in Florida, instead relying on self-destructing text messages and smartphone screen shots of brokerage accounts. They turned an initial investment of $100k into more than $2m in just over a year.

Separately, most financial services powers-that-be traditionally have eschewed any public political statements, but now that’s changing, and there’s real danger in disagreeing with the CEO of your firm. That seems like common sense, which is why it’s surprising that a handful of J.P. Morgan Chase employees made critical comments in response to CEO Jamie Dimon’s public stance against the white-supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and President Trump’s reaction to them.

Dimon’s recent memo to bank employees over the disbanding of Trump’s strategic and policy forum, of which the bank CEO was a member, caused a flurry of comments from J.P. Morgan bankers, typically posted with their names, on an internal message board.

As of Thursday morning, only four of the more than 500 posted messages and email responses were critical of Dimon’s actions. That said, the negative remarks garnered a ton of attention, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One of the more critical commenters wrote: “Chase has become extremely political this year and I must be honest and say that others and myself have taken offense to much of it. Trump condemned all hateful actors, as he should have. I have to see this conflict in my private life. I never thought I would deal with it at my workplace.”

Another employee wrote: “Let’s not turn this into a political grandstanding event, and certainly not in our work environment.”

Dimon wrote that he “strongly” disagrees with Trump’s reaction to recent clashes in Charlottesville. “Racism, intolerance and violence are always wrong. There is no room for equivocation here. It is a leader’s role, in business or in government, to bring people together, not tear them apart.”

Honestly, does that really seem like a controversial statement?

Meanwhile:

Bank Brexit plans have made them realise it’s cheaper to base staff outside of the most expensive places in the world. They can’t unsee that. (Financial News)

J.P. Morgan hired Chris Murray, a machine-learning expert who previously worked as an equity analyst at Goldman Sachs, to work on the global central risk book, a trading hub that monitors the bank’s positions, inventories and risks. (Financial News)

Uber hired Brooks Entwistle, the former chairman for Southeast Asia at Goldman Sachs, as the chief business officer in the Asia-Pacific. (Bloomberg)

Gary Cohn is staying…for now. (Bloomberg)

Cohn is fighting with fellow former Goldmanites Mnuchin and Bannon over China policy. (Bloomberg)

Bank of America plans to charge asset managers as much as $80k a user per year for its research division’s full package of services when MiFID II is imposed. (Bloomberg)

Trump touts the self-proclaimed “youngest hedge fund manager in the world” and “Trumpenomics expert.” (Bloomberg)

Larry Fink sent a memo to everyone who works at BlackRock. (Business Insider)

Blackstone is enraging a lot of people. (Bloomberg)

Here’s an example of why activist investor Bill Ackman rubs many people the wrong way. (Bloomberg)

Banks, exchanges and fintech startups are using blockchain to bring gold into the digital age. (Bloomberg)

“I’d like to get into banking in the future and while I know that will be even harder work it’s a challenge I’m certainly ready for,” said Bobbie Copp-Barton, age 18. (Macclesfield Express)

Photo credit: tarasov_vl/GettyImages
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Top BAML FX trader turned risk officer at Citadel has now quit

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The former head of foreign exchange trading for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) FX trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who quit trading and banking to take a risk job at a London hedge fund, has now left his new role.

Guillaume Huteau, who has spent the last three years working as a risk manager at Citadel in London after two decades in senior banking trading jobs, left the hedge fund earlier this month, according to filings on the Financial Conduct Authority. Citadel didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Huteau last role at BAML was leading up its CEEMEA FX trading division, a job he took in 2012 and which lasted around 18 months. Before this, he was at Credit Suisse for 18 years, latterly as head of EEMEA and Latam emerging markets FX and rates options.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, traders have increasingly been gravitating towards more secure risk management careers. This was before fintech and artificial intelligence were the career switches of choice among senior sales and trading professionals. But risk roles in hedge funds are particularly well paid – with compensation coming in at anywhere between $500k-1m for the senior ranks, according to figures provided previously by headhunters Glocap.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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Deutsche Bank’s EMEA investment banking chief also runs a hip arts centre

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Alasdair Warren, the head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate and investment bank in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), has a big job reviving the fortunes of the German giant, but he still has time for a side hustle – running an art deco cinema and theatre in a small town in the West Country, UK.

Warren has been director of the Electric Palace in Bridport, Dorset for the best part of three years, filings on Companies House show. In a sense, Warren has been the knight in shining armour for a major historical landmark in the town, which was put up for sale for £550k in August 2014.

In 2013, the struggling venue was seeking funds from the community in order to fund a £20k new sound system and £5.5k lights. Its previous owners Peter Hitchin and his daughter Gabrielle Rabbitts were reportedly working unpaid. At the time of the venue’s 2014 sale, Hitchen told the BBC: “It is a lifestyle business and I am in no hurry to sell it. I am looking for the right person.”

Warren’s new tenure has necessitated some investment. The building is listed, but required a new roof in 2015, while the restoration of the cinema includes a new sound system, structural changes to the building and a redecoration to enhance its much vaunted art deco features.

Electric Palace’s patrons include Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and film director Mike Leigh. It has historically attracted some big names in comedy and music including Al Murray and PJ Harvey. This month it will host Bridport’s first ever folk festival.

Running the venue seems like a labour of love for Warren. Its latest accounts to for the year to January 2016 show that the Electric Palace posted a loss of £336k.

Warren is a big name investment banker who was appointed Deutsche Bank’s new head of CIB for EMEA in November 2015. He joined from Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and global co-head of its financial sponsors group.

After a series of strategy changes at the investment bank over the past two years, Warren has a task both reviving the fortunes of Deutsche Bank in Europe and maintaining staff morale after job cuts and disappointing bonus payments.

He told Handelsblatt last year that he wanted Deutsche Bank to become the top bank in Europe for corporate and investment banking again. Figures from Dealogic show that Deutsche was ranked third for investment banking revenues in EMEA last year, the same spot as in 2015, behind J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank. In the first half of 2017, Deutsche was ranked 5th in the European investment banking revenue league tables, down from third in the first six months of 2016.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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