Goldman Is Reportedly Axing Nearly 30% of Its Asia Investment Bankers

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Reuters

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September 26, 2016, 4:24 AM EDT

Goldman Sachs is cutting almost 30% of its 300 investment banking jobs in Asia outside Japan in response to a slowdown in activity in the region, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Wall Street bank is reducing the number of bankers working on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and equity and debt capital markets deals, the sources said. It will be left with slightly more than 200 bankers across Asia.

Most of the jobs cuts are likely to take place in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, where Goldman’s main Asian offices are located, according to the sources, who said the process was underway.

A Goldman Sachs gs spokesman declined to comment.

The company, whose investment banking revenue fell 11% to $1.79 billion in the second quarter, has been hit by a lackluster environment for deals across Asia.

The total value of M&A deals across the Asia-Pacific region has dropped to $572.9 billion so far this year, from $745.7 billion in the same period of 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Goldman said in July it had embarked on a cost-cutting plan that would save $700 million a year in response to a “challenging backdrop” for revenue.

It still tops the Asia-Pacific M&A league tables but in the first half of the year it came third after JPMorgan jpm and Citi c as the biggest bank by revenue in Asia, according to data published on Friday by industry analytics firm Coalition.

One of the sources said no managing directors in Asia were in the running to be made partners this year while three existing partners in the region had been stripped of their titles.

Retrenchment

Goldman and other big investment banks are grappling with a harsh environment after the region’s economies and markets failed to deliver sustained growth after the 2008 financial crisis. The banks’ business has also been eroded by local competitors.

In 2015 Goldman reduced the number of its investment bankers in Singapore — a hub for Southeast Asia — to about 35 from 50, several sources said.

There have been further departures this year, including its Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner.

Many of Goldman’s European rivals have announced plans to scale down their operations in Asia.

Barclays bcs said in January that it would cut about 1,000 staff in its investment bank operations worldwide, with the bulk happening in Asia, while Societe Generale scgly decided to close its equities research desk in India.

Other European banks including BNP Paribas bnpqy and Deutsche Bank db are expected to scale back operations in non-core Asian markets while last year Asia-focused Standard Chartered shut down its equities franchise.

Goldman employs just over 100 bankers in China, where it was one of the first foreign investment banks to start operations. But like other banks it has been hit by a drop in Chinese trading volumes and competition from local banks.

JPMorgan Tops Worldwide Investment Banking Rankings Again

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

September 23, 2016, 5:38 AM EDT

JPMorgan retained its place at the top of the global investment bank rankings in the first half of this year despite a fall in revenues, while Deutsche Bank’s troubles ensured the top five were all U.S. banks, new data on Friday showed.

JPMorgan’s jpm revenue from trading, mergers and acquisitions and other investment banking activity was $12.5 billion in the six months to June, down 5.3% from the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by industry analytics firm Coalition.

Deutsche db has warned it may need deeper cost cuts to turn itself around after revenue fell sharply in the second quarter due to challenging markets and low interest rates. It fell to sixth place from third, allowing Bank of America Merrill Lynch to move up into the top five.

Investment banks suffered their worst first half year performance since the 2008 financial crisis as revenues for the top 12 players fell 15% from the same period a year ago, the data showed.

Looming U.S. elections, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June, near-zero interest rates and worries about China’s economy have spooked markets this year and curbed investors’ appetite to take risks.

Last week, Citigroup c said it expects to post better results in fixed income trading for the third quarter compared with a year ago.

Most of JPMorgan’s revenue, some $6.9 billion, was accrued on its home turf but the $3.9 billion generated in its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations was enough to dislodge Deutsche from the top place in that region.

In the same period last year, Deutsche was number one in EMEA with revenue of $4.3 billion. Its slide to number two, even on its home turf highlights how difficult a year it has been for Germany’s biggest lender.

JPMorgan also dislodged Deutsche Bank in the Asia Pacific (APAC region) to take top spot with revenue of $1.7 billion in the first half of the year. That was 15% lower than the $2 billion Deutsche Bank earned in the same period last year in the region.

JPMorgan retained its crown in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) trading, its position solidified by its dominance in G10 rates and foreign exchange trading. The U.S. bank slipped a place to third in the equities ranking, however.

Coalition tracks Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs gs , HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley ms , Societe Generale and UBS.

Lessons From Olympic Athletes Who Went On to Wall Street

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

August 22, 2016, 1:10 AM EDT

Emily Samuelson competed at the highest level as an ice dancer over the course of her 15-year career, retiring after skating in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. But like many Olympians, she never earned enough to cover her expenses.

Her parents spent $50,000 a year on her sport, an investment she tried to pay back by giving them three-quarters of her winnings. She saved and invested the rest.

Samuelson, 26, knew that many Olympic friends struggled with money, and she saw an opportunity for a career after skating. She’s now among a number of Olympians working in wealth management at big banks, which hope that the cachet of their athletic careers impresses prospective clients. UBS Wealth Management Americas ubs , Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch bac , and Morgan Stanley all employ several retired Olympic athletes.

“I got addicted to saving, (and) I started investing at 14,” said Samuelson, now a financial adviser for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Michigan. “Good, honest direction is lacking in the Olympic sphere when it comes to finances.”

Cheri Lytle, Merrill Lynch’s head of advisor strategy and development, said Olympians like Samuelson are also appealing for their youth and work ethic.

Brokerages have hired thousands of trainees in recent years to build up a next generation of advisers, but about half drop out, according to media reports. Olympians are team-oriented and competitive people who have already achieved success in another career, often before 30.

Samuelson and two other Olympians told Reuters they liked Wall Street’s competitive, eat-what-you-kill culture, along with paychecks that are bigger and more stable than their sports careers could offer.

After winning a silver medal in Taekwondo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Mark Lopez’s training partner suggested he looked to Wall Street for his next career.

“I can’t kick forever,” Lopez recalled telling himself before he joined UBS AG as a financial advisor in Houston in 2011.

Samuelson said her Olympic career has opened doors for her with prospective clients, who became more interested in talking after learning of her athletic background. Lopez also sees the promotional value of his athletic success: In his picture on the UBS website, he’s holding his silver medal.

Lopez, 34, counts his brother Steve and sister Diana, both Olympic medalists, among his clients. While he would be happy to work with more Olympians, realistically, he knows that few meet the Swiss bank’s high net worth targets.

The U.S. Olympic Committee provides all Olympians with health insurance, but the stipend each athlete is paid depends on the sport and can vary from about $6,000 to tens of thousands per year.

Even celebrity Olympians, who net lucrative sponsorships and professional contracts, often fail to plan for the future.

“The average athlete has a 15- to 20-year career with a 60-year retirement,” said Jordan Waxman, a Barron’s listed financial adviser at HighTower HSW, who works primarily with athletes with $30 million or more, including Olympians.

Waxman said his clients are laser-focused on the next game, not so much on retirement, budgeting or how to avoid being “prey for fly-by-night investment ideas.”

David Emma, a professional hockey player who played in the 1992 Olympics, said he lost 80% of his savings in the tech bubble because his financial adviser invested the majority of his portfolio in the technology sector.

The loss decimated the nest egg Emma had saved over his decade-long career, and it drove him to pursue a career in wealth management, first at Merrill Lynch and later at HighTower.

Emma currently advises 35 professional hockey, golf and tennis athletes, including several Olympians.

“The less in the dark you are, the better,” Emma said. “These guys enjoy the opportunity to be empowered, to be involved in the markets and investment decisions.”

How Carol Roth Went from Beauty Contestant to Small Business Expert

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

August 15, 2016, 7:05 AM EDT

If you ask Carol Roth which of her 60,000 Twitter followers she’s most proud of, she’ll tell you it’s the National Football League. She even knows the exact number of people the league is following—not that she’s counting.

“That really is one of my proudest accomplishments,” she said. “I wear that with a badge of honor.”

Roth, an on-air contributor at CNBC, judge on Mark Burnett’s America’s Greatest Makers and author of the New York Times bestselling book The Entrepreneur Equation, began her career in 1995 at an investment bank called Montgomery Securities.

She did not take a traditional route to the job.

It all started when Roth found out banks fly candidates in for final-round interviews. She wanted a free trip to San Francisco, where Montgomery was based. The only problem, Roth said, was that her on-campus interview with Montgomery conflicted with the Ms. Illinois beauty pageant, which she was competing in.

Through sheer persistence, Roth set up an alternate interview date, and got to the final-round interview in San Francisco. She hated the city but loved Montgomery, and spent her first five years there, staying through a couple mergers.

Listen to our full interview here:

During the 1990s—when finance workplace culture was notoriously unpleasant toward women—Roth knew she was getting herself into an industry where she’d have to navigate sexism and objectification. But she was so intent on her work—”It was just such a unique opportunity to learn that I just wanted to suck up every little piece of it”—that she put her head down and did what she does best.

“I honestly had very little awareness that I was a woman. I was just very aggressive and very focused on what it was that I wanted to do,” Roth said on Fortune Unfiltered. “And I was really, really good at it. I was that sick person who wanted to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and just completely throw myself into it.”

Check out this week’s episode of Fortune Unfiltered as Roth and Aaron Task discuss her early investment banking career, her small business consulting work, her hatred of the term “woman entrepreneur,” and that whole NFL Twitter thing.

Goldman Sachs Says Brexit Could Force a Restructure in Some Operations

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

August 5, 2016, 1:22 AM EDT

Goldman Sachs Group gs said on Thursday that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union may adversely affect some of its operations in the EU and could require the bank to restructure some of its businesses.

Brexit will also likely change arrangements by which firms in the United Kingdom are able to provide services in the EU, which may adversely affect the way the bank conducts certain operations, the bank said in regulatory filing.

Goldman, which did not break down its exposure to the EU or the UK, said the timing and outcome of Brexit negotiations were highly uncertain.

The bank also raised the upper end of its estimate of legal losses it may face beyond what it has set aside to $2 billion from the $1.9 billion it estimated in the preceding quarter.

In other filings this week, Bank of America bac also said its businesses and results could be adversely affected by Brexit and that it may incur additional costs if its UK entities found that their ability to conduct business in the bloc was limited.

However, JPMorgan Chase jpyyl said it did not believe that any likely scenario from Brexit would threaten the viability of its business units or its ability to serve clients in the EU and the UK.

Citigroup c said it had not experienced any significant negative impact on its results or client activity as a result of Brexit.

Ex-Wall Street Banker Accused of Insider Tips to Father Faces Trial

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

July 24, 2016, 10:20 AM EDT

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are set to face off with a former Wall Street investment banker in their first insider trading trial since a U.S. appeals court curtailed their ability to pursue such cases.

Jury selection is expected to begin on Monday in the case of Sean Stewart, an ex-banker at Perella Weinberg Partners and JPMorgan Chase JPM accused of supplying inside information to his father about unannounced healthcare mergers.

Prosecutors say accountant Robert Stewart, the father, and Richard Cunniffe, an acquaintance who worked at a boutique investment bank, made $1.16 million trading on tips about five healthcare deals provided by the younger Stewart.

The mergers included INC Research’s INCR 2011 acquisition of Kendle International KNDL .

For more on Wall Street, watch:

The case has resulted in guilty pleas by Robert Stewart, 61, and Cunniffe, 61, who, according to prosecutors, secretly recorded the elder Stewart saying his son criticized him for not trading on a tip.

“I handed you this on a silver platter and you didn’t invest in this,” Robert Stewart quoted his son as saying, according to prosecutors.

Sean Stewart, 35, is expected to argue he believed his father would keep the information secret and not trade on it, according to court records.

“After a year of being dragged through the mud, he is looking forward to clearing his name at trial,” said Martin Cohen, Stewart’s lawyer.

The case is being pursued by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office, which has charged 107 people with insider trading since 2009.

The trial is his office’s first since suffering a major setback in 2014, when an appellate court limited the scope of insider trading laws, causing charges against 14 people to be dropped or dismissed.

Your 30-Year Mortgage Rate Should Be Lower Than It Is Now

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that to prove insider trading, prosecutors must establish that a tipper received a benefit in exchange for the information that was not just friendship but of “some consequence,” like money.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to examine that issue in a different case in October. Bharara has said the 2nd Circuit’s ruling could allow executives who tip family members for no pecuniary benefits to avoid prosecution.

In Stewart’s case, prosecutors say evidence shows his father used some trading profits to pay $10,055 toward his son’s wedding.

Stewart’s lawyers have called linking the payment to the trading “ludicrous” since it is customary for a groom’s parents to pay for some wedding costs.

The case is U.S. v. Stewart, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00287.

Former World Leaders and Central Bank Chiefs Are Flocking to Join Investment Banks

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

July 14, 2016, 11:44 AM EDT

It’s good to have friends from high places, and banks are luring former world leaders and past central bank chiefs as advisers to give them an edge in a difficult landscape.

Banks and investment firms have more than 30 advisers who in the past sat at the top table of global politics and central banking, according to analysis by IFR. They include former leaders of Britain, Mexico, Australia and Sweden, top European policymakers, several ex-finance ministers and former central bank governors from the US and Europe.

Former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso last week joined Goldman Sachs gs , just a day after Lazard lor lured former ECB board member and senior German politician Joerg Asmussen.

Appointing experienced advisers isn’t new but they are earning their corn more than ever as banks and their clients scramble to assess the political, regulatory and trade implications of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. Banks may need to restructure and move business out of London, and clients across all industries also want guidance.

“They can be very well-connected people with great expertise,” a person at one of the banks said.

Such appointments can also raise criticism, however. France’s government on Wednesday urged Barroso to scrap the idea of taking the Goldman role, adding to a growing outcry over the potential conflict of interest.

Still, IFR analysis shows his move is hardly unique. Goldman alone already has a former ECB board member and two past central bank governors among its advisers, as well as an ex-World Bank president and past senior ministers from Spain and Czech Republic.

The roles of advisers varies by bank and person. Some advisers are in frequent contact with clients, but others will mostly work with staff and only liaise with clients on broad issues, people familiar with the process said. Many have been in their roles for years, and some advisers have joined the banks in full-time roles.

Bankers said they also bring experience about international relations, employment and anti-trust issues—not to mention bulging contact books.

When Citigroup c held a call for clients on the risk implications of Brexit a few days before the vote, for example, people close to the situation said it included former UK foreign minister William Hague, who stepped down as a member of parliament in 2015 to become a life peer, and ex-Swedish finance minister Anders Borg, who is an adviser to the bank. Around 1,400 clients dialled in and bankers said similar briefings have been popular.

The pitfall for banks is avoiding vanity hires, where a big name politician from the past is paid well but offers little of worth.

Two presidents, six PMs, five central bank chiefs

Goldman and Lazard are two of the most prominent banks in terms of hiring politicians.

Barroso will be chairman of Goldman’s international business in London and adviser across the bank. Before serving as EC president from 2004 to 2014, Barroso was prime minister of Portugal from 2002 to 2004.

Often the links between Goldman and politics have been in the other direction, prompting further criticism. Former Goldman executives in powerful positions past and present include Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, Mario Draghi and Mark Carney.

In addition to Barroso, Goldman has former World Bank president Robert Zoellick as chairman of its international advisers. Its advisers include past ECB chief economist and board member Otmar Issing and Ian Macfarlane and Tito Mboweni, past central bank governors of Australia and South Africa.

Lazard said Asmussen will join in September as a managing director to work with sovereign and corporate clients across Europe. Asmussen was Germany’s state secretary of labour and social affairs and a member of the ECB’s executive board from 2012 to 2013, and before that worked at Germany’s finance ministry and chaired the financial regulator.

Other senior advisers at Lazard include former Australian prime minister Paul Keating; former UK politician and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and former UK MP Archie Norman, who was an adviser and is now chairman of Lazard in London.

Big names

There are some big name advisers elsewhere too.

JP Morgan jpm hired former British PM Tony Blair in 2008 to advise on strategic and political issues. He is chairman of its international council alongside former Italian finance minister Vittorio Grilli and ex-Israel central bank boss Jacob Frenkel as vice-chairmen.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch bac this year lured former Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt as senior adviser for its European business. He joins Neelie Kroes, the former EU commissioner for “digital agenda” and powerful anti-trust chief who was hired last year.

Another former UK prime minister, John Major, is a senior adviser at Credit Suisse Research Institute csgkf , as is former Mexico president Ernesto Zedillo. Alistair Darling, UK finance minister during the financial crisis, joined Morgan Stanley’s ms board this year, and there are a number of former senior ministers and ambassadors among the adviser ranks.

Investment firms have tapped even bigger hitters. Bond investor Pimco phk in December set up a board to advise on economic, political and strategic developments, headed by former US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke alongside past ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet and UK prime minister Gordon Brown. They follow Alan Greenspan, a previous consultant for Pimco.

Among the former power brokers who have taken more permanent banking roles are UBS chairman Axel Weber ubs , who was head of the Deutsche Bundesbank and a member of the ECB for seven years before taking the top role at UBS in 2012.

For political significance, the chairman’s office at BNP Paribas bnobf is probably unmatched in banking. Jean Lemierre, former head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development joined the French bank as a senior adviser in 2008 and became chairman in 2014.

His office sits at the heart of BNP Paribas’ Paris headquarters in the ornate room where Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine in 1796.

Broken Deals Are Cutting Deep Into Investment Banks’ Fees

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Reuters

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July 5, 2016, 11:48 AM EDT

Global investment banking fees fell by nearly a quarter in the first half of 2016 from a year earlier as market volatility hit capital markets and M&A dealmaking, Thomson Reuters data published on Monday showed.

Global fees for services ranging from merger and acquisitions advisory services to capital markets underwriting fell 23% to $37.1 billion at the end of June, the slowest first half for fees since 2012.

While 2015 was a record year for M&A, 2016 is shaping up to be a record year for ‘broken’ deals, as the United States flexes its antitrust muscle and seeks to crack down on deals that aid tax avoidance or risk harming national security.

Coupled with market volatility triggered by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, this has dented some of the confidence required by corporate boards to approve deals and companies to push the button on capital markets activity.

Equity capital markets fees saw the steepest decline of 43% compared to a year ago to total $7.3 billion, dragged down by a 56% drop in fees from initial public offerings.

Fees from underwriting bond deals fell 11% to $11.4 billion and M&A revenue declined 15% to $11.5 billion, compared to a year ago.

Regionally, fees in the Americas totalled $19.9 billion, down 26% from last year. Fees in Europe were also down 26% at $8.4 billion and the Asia-Pacific region saw a 10% decline to $6.7 billion.

JPMorgan jpm topped the global league table for fees, pulling in $2.6 billion during the first half, a decline of 23% compared to a year earlier, followed by Goldman Sachs gs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch bac .

How Morgan Stanley Plans to Stop Employees From Jumping Ship

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

June 3, 2016, 2:14 PM EDT

Morgan Stanley is trying to woo its vice presidents into staying at the firm by offering them one month of paid leave.

According to the Financial Times, the investment bank started offering a four-week long sabbatical this week to junior bankers who make it to the VP level. A Morgan Stanley ms representative confirmed the rolling out of the program to Fortune but declined to comment further.

This news comes the same week that the bank announced an overhaul to its review system, discarding its numerical scale (which rates employees from 1 to 5) to one with five adjectives, according to the New York Times.

Morgan Stanley isn’t the only investment bank rethinking how it treats junior employees. Just yesterday, UBS ubs announced a new initiative that will give employees two hours of “personal time” every week. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan Chase jpm openly discouraged employees from working weekends earlier this year.

But changes aren’t just limited to giving young bankers more time off. In November of last year, Goldman Sachs gs unveiled a new initiative to retain young talent, the provisions of which included faster upward mobility. The Royal Bank of Scotland rbspf and Barclays bcs have announced similar programs, according to the FT.

Credit Suisse Is Telling Its Bankers To Leave by 7PM on Friday Nights

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Reuters

@FortuneMagazine

June 2, 2016, 5:37 AM EDT

Credit Suisse has told its staff to leave work by 7pm on a Friday and not return until at least Saturday lunchtime, unless a big deal is in the works.

Dubbed “Protecting Friday Night,” the Swiss bank’s initiative is part of a wider drive by investment banks to soften their workaholic image and stop talented staff leaving for jobs in other areas such as technology or private equity.

In an email dated May 23, Credit Suisse told its staff in the EMEA investment banking and capital markets department that they should leave the office by 7pm on a Friday and not return until at least midday on Saturday—unless a major deal is launching or imminent, bank insiders told Reuters.

Such instructions may seem outlandish to people working in other industries, where leaving work on a Friday and having a drink with friends or a family meal is still the norm.

But for bankers, particularly juniors, who frequently find themselves working into the small hours on Fridays and at weekends, the diktat may bring some relief.

“We have given a great deal of thought into how we can provide some time off for our bankers,” said Marisa Drew, co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and Capital Markets Division said, adding that Credit Suisse had sought feedback, in particular from junior staff, on weekends and work-life balance.

“(This allows)…employees to make firm plans with family and friends and ensures that this time will be respected.”

Credit Suisse is not alone in trying to improve the lot of its employees, with the focus shifting from pay and bonuses.

Staff at UBS ubs can now take at least two hours of “personal time” a week, as the bank tries to retain staff by offering a better work-life balance, while JPMorgan jpm told its investment bank staff they should take weekends off, unless they were working on a major deal.

“It means you can at least make plans one night of the week,” a person at Credit Suisse said of the move.

Credit Suisse has also launched a fast-track program for top-performing investment banking juniors, in an effort to attract and retain employees.

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