Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are following a similar trajectory. Both have cut or are cutting around 6% of their workforces. Both want to focus more on wealth and asset management (although Morgan Stanley is further down this road). And both are growing in Paris.
Morgan Stanley in particular is redoubling its efforts in the French capital. Reuters reports that as Morgan Stanley increases headcount from 300 to 500 in Paris in the next two years, it plans to hire macro and equity derivatives salespeople and traders in particular. The US bank has already declared its intention of adding 100 people this year, many of them quants.
While Morgan Stanley is adding experienced sales and trading staff in Paris, Goldman has been taking a slightly different approach. Financial News reports that the bank has been moving teams of senior bankers from London across Europe, including a team of financial institutions group (FIG) MDs – Mathieu Munuera, Francesco Paolicelli, Tom Haraldsson, Marguerite Bion-Tonteri and Gregor Gesell, who’ve gone to the French capital.
Now, though, Goldman Sachs is focusing on external hires. Anthony Gutman, co-head of EMEA investment banking at the firm, says they’re now at a phase that’s less about “moving people from London” to Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid, and more about hiring on the ground. Goldman’s Paris hiring is likely to emphasise graduates, though. “It’s also not going to work if we just put senior bankers there,” Gutman told Financial News. “We’re trying to shift the dial from the vast majority of our intern and graduate group being based in London to a more representative sample based in Europe consistent with our business mix. That’s the phase of the journey we’re in now.”
Separately, having spoken at length about his reasons for cutting jobs last month and reflected on the unfortunate increase in junior banker salaries and entertainment costs among other things, it might be presumed that Lazard CEO Ken Jacobs has said all there is to say.
Not at all.
Speaking to former Lazard banker William Cohan for Puck, Jacobs suggested cutting staff isn’t simply about removing costs, but that it fulfills a cultural function too. Culling is necessary at a place that, “puts a lot of emphasis on being exceptional,” said Jacobs. Without it, mediocrity creeps in and “drags the whole franchise down.”
Meanwhile…
Morgan Stanley is contemplating cutting 7% of its bankers in Asia. (Bloomberg)
At least seven more top Barclays bankers have resigned to join to UBS Group in the United States. They include: Laurence Braham, Richard Hardegree, Richard Casavechia, Ozzie Ramos, Jason Williams, Neil Meyer and Ken Tittle. (Reuters)
Freya van Oorsouw, Credit Suisse’s head of financial sponsors, is joining Deutsche Bank. (Financial News)
BNP Paribas hired Credit Suisse’s event driven team in London. (The Trade)
Former Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley fixed income trader Beatriz Martin shrunk UBS’s fixed income business for Sergio Ermotti in 2012. Now she’s doing it again. (Reuters)
Goldman Sachs is opening an Abu Dhabi office, which will initially focus on asset management. (Bloomberg)
“I don’t have one friend in their 50s who has remained in their corporate jobs. These are women who have run companies, but they’re all doing other things now—sitting on boards, starting businesses and usually working from home.” (Bloomberg)
Chris Hladczuk spent a year at Goldman Sachs and speaks of it often. “I love Goldman because it taught me how to win. It taught me to grind. And it taught me how to remain ridiculously calm during a crisis.” (Business Insider)
Following in the footsteps of the US Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) proposed complete ban on non-competes, the UK Government has announced its intention to limit the maximum length of post termination non-compete clauses to just three months. (Farrer)
GAM Holding AG has cut its bonus pool to zero with the exception of contractual bonuses for fund managers/ (Bloomberg)
“The French don’t warm up to foreigners easily. It can be quite lonely. Paris is an incredible city. It’s a great place for a startup — if you’re French.” (Bloomberg)
After receiving complaints to his personal mobile, Revolut’s ex-head of the UK texted a customer and said he would be waiting for him ‘in the garden with my shotgun’. It was an accident. (ThisisMoney)
Working from home encourages drug taking. “Yeah, maybe my eyes are red, but no one can see that on Zoom.” (Bloomberg)
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