UBS has not got the message. While other banks chase after junior M&A bankers, offering them all sorts of inducements to join and then to stay, UBS has decided to dispense with the spreadsheet jockeys and go for the makers of rain. In M&A, it wants senior staff.
Steve Pierson, co-head of M&A at UBS in the Americas, told Bloomberg that the lacklustre M&A market means banks are better off structuring their teams in favour of senior bankers who can actually bring in deals. The downturn requires a leaner group staffed with rainmakers, he informed the news service. Accordingly, Bloomberg reports that UBS has dumped 20 junior M&A bankers in its U.S. business over the past year and replaced/upgraded six of its senior bankers. Countering the tendency for U.S. bankers to see Europe-based banks as poor-paying socialists, UBS has also hired a banker from Goldman Sachs and another from Credit Suisse for its financial institutions group.
UBS’s enthusiasm for experienced staff follows comments earlier this week from Goldman Sachs’s co-head of M&A, which suggested the work of junior bankers is often pointless during a downturn.
Separately, John Lefevre, author of the @GSElevator Twitter account, has lost his book deal after his identity was revealed and it became apparent he hadn’t worked for Goldman Sachs after all. Goldman allowed itself a moment of public schadenfreude…
Meanwhile:
Every M&A banker’s worst nightmare. (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan is moving Ed Duggan, its head of electronic sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to Hong Kong from London later this year. The bank needs a replacement for him in London, but will probably fill this role internally. (Financial News)
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch suspended Joseph Landes, head of spot trading for Europe, Middle East and Africa, as it carries out its investigations into FX price fixing. (Reuters)
French bank BNP Paribas has suspended its head of spot currency trading, Bob de Groot. (WSJ)
More than 80 employees of RBS received pay deals worth more than £1m last year. That’s down from 95 in 2012. (Sky)
Andrew Procter, global head of compliance as well as government and regulatory affairs at Deutsche Bank, is leaving for law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. (Financial Times)
Sharon Bowles, the Liberal Democrat MEP who chairs the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, says the bonus cap has worked. (Guardian)
What is a spring week? (Mergers and Inquisitions)
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