Investment banks demand a lot from their graduate recruits. Clocking up 100-hours weeks, being at the beck and call of clients (and managing directors), often less than ‘challenging’ work. But here’s the deal they offer – paying their entry level employees (a lot) more than any other industry.
The have now competition – fintechs. Salaries for entry level web developers and data scientists have increased by 20% over the past 18 months now stand at £50-60k ($64-77k) and it will “only continue”, according to specialist fintech recruiters interviewed by Financial News. £70-80k for young data scientists “isn’t out of the question”. Investment banks pay their front office analysts an average of £50k, but £28k bonuses ensure that they’re still able to pay the best and brightest graduates the most. For now.
For investment banks, analysts and associates remain a source of comparatively cheap labour and many are shifting expensive senior bankers in and working harder to retain juniors. For a fintech firm relying on a small influx of VC capital, the prospect of paying your junior technical employees such high salaries has potentially fatal consequences, particular if they leave for 30% more elsewhere and start-ups have to replace them with an even more expensive hire. Fintech firms also have to invest in sales staff that come at around £90-120k – a £20k rise on last year, Financial News suggests.
Many simply can’t afford to burn through their capital by hiring a scarce and expensive data scientists. Instead they’re hiring in contractors, which according to Ilya Kondrashov, co-founder and chief operating officer of online lending platform MarketInvoice “[is] becoming a pretty sweet gig”.
Speaking of which, now that Barack Obama has left the White House he’s free to get on the lucrative speaking circuit at investment banks. The FT reports that he’s agreed to a speech at Cantor Fitzgerald’s annual healthcare conference in September for a cool $400k. There’s clearly a presidential premium for speaking on Wall Street – Hillary Clinton got $225k for three speeches at Goldman Sachs in 2013. Obama teased Clinton at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, saying: “If this material goes well, I’ll use it at Goldman Sachs next year. Earn me some serious Tubmans.”
Meanwhile:
Credit Suisse is betting big on its energy investment banking team (Bloomberg)
Credit Suisse’s securitised bonds trading reversal could see it miss out on the Q1 boom (WSJ)
European investment banks are losing even more market share across bond trading and equities in Q1 (Bloomberg)
Fund managers want all investment banks to cut pay (Institutional Investor)
Laurent Marquis, J.P. Morgan’s head of equity trading, is joining Citadel (Markets Media)
Citigroup is setting up in Saudi Arabia…again (Bloomberg)
Investment banks are identifying ‘mental health first aiders’ to help identify employees suffering emotional issues in the workplace (Financial News)
Actually, other industries have been doing this a while anyway (Financial Times)
Analyst made €289k in two years on draft stock recommendations didn’t know he was breaking the rules: “I truly didn’t expect to land in front of the AMF with these operations. I really didn’t think I was breaching market-abuse rules. I’m 36, I don’t want my life to be ground to a halt. I don’t know whether I’d be able to bounce back again.” (Bloomberg)
Ex-Citigroup banker, and paratrooper, heading up Robin Hood Foundation: “I came back understanding and realizing that the greatest opportunities we have in this country will not be won by our air force machinery nor the bombs we can drop,” Moore said. They “are going to be fought and found with our ability to unearth every drop of human potential we have.” (Bloomberg)
Andrew Tyrie, the leader of the UK’s Treasury Select Committee and terroriser of bankers, has left (Financial News)
Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs programmer accused of stealing high frequency trading proprietary code eight years ago, has been given a right to appeal his conviction (New York Post)
Former WaMu, IndyMac employees dream of the glory days (WSJ)
Be single, be friendly (Quartz)
Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com
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