Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion (WSJ)
Wall Street is expected to pay 32.1% of its revenue to employees, the same as last year, but below the 36% in 2007. Profits, which were depressed by losses in the past two years, have bounced back from the 2008 crisis. But the estimated 2010 profit of $61.3 billion for the firms surveyed still falls about 20% short from the record $82 billion in 2006. Over that same period, compensation across the firms in the survey increased 23%.

Optimists On Wall Street: Half See Bigger Bonuses This Year (eF)
Half of the financial services staffers in the U.S. expect a higher bonus this year because the business fared better than in 2009…Higher bonuses are anticipated with greater frequency by those toiling at bulge-bracket banks, long-only asset managers and boutique banks, compared to professionals at hedge funds, commercial banks, independent trading or research and professional services firms.

Dick Bové: Expect Bank Earnings To Be Lower This Quarter (CNBC)
“What you’ll see is a lot of gimmickry and a major effort to lower compensation cost to offset the fact that revenues just are not going to be there,” Bove said this morning.

Pandit Recruits Citigroup Army as Costs Erode Bank Margins (Bloomberg)
Pandit is adding 7,500 staff in China over the next three years. He also plans to recruit 100 commodities traders and double private bankers in North America to almost 260.

Hedge Fund Activists Plot A Comeback (Dow Jones)
“In the past, we would show up and take a large position in a company and the first thing they would do was sue us,” Rosenstein said. “Then they would call the Justice Department and put in staggered boards and poison pills.” He says that’s all in the past.

Who’s Sleeping With The Boss? (CNBC)
One out of 14 of you and your co-workers, according to HR. Continue reading »

$$$ Fed’s Yellen Says Low Rates May Prompt Risk-Taking [Bloomberg]

$$$ Russian bank explains hiring of spy Anna Chapman [AP] Continue reading »

Signing Bonuses Haunt Wall Street (WSJ)
In September, a Finra arbitration panel ruled that former Wells Fargo & Co. broker Ivan Pulido had to repay about $1 million he received when he moved to the bank from Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2008…UBS AG executives are trying to squeeze more production out of several hundred brokers in the U.S. who received bonuses to join the company but haven’t brought in enough clients or other revenue to become profitable for the Swiss bank. UBS has about 6,700 brokers in the U.S. Senior managers in the division such as its chief executive, Robert McCann, have been pushing some new brokers for about six months to “win back” their old clients. Mr. McCann, a former Merrill brokerage chief who arrived at UBS last year, also has been meeting with clients of longtime brokers at the firm.

CEO’s Gather For Group Think (WSJ)
The best place to test the pulse of corporate America will be downtown Chicago on Thursday and Friday as The Business Council swaps the usual country-club setting of its fall meetings for the self-styled risk-management capital of the world. Caterpillar Inc.’s Jim Owens, the group’s chairman, Jamie Dimon from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Boeing Co.’s James McNerney will be among the leaders attending what has developed into an annual “group think” for the U.S. business elite, supported by presentations from policy makers and financiers.

‘Animal Instincts’ Dominate Euro Zone Bond Market (FT)
Hans Blommestein, head of bond markets and public debt management at the OECD, told the Financial Times: “The psychology of the markets is very negative and not necessarily based on facts, but rather on animal instincts and spirits that trigger far greater selling in bond markets than is often justified by the data.”

Banks Voice Resistance as Regulators Say Basel Is Just a Start (Bloomberg)
Central bankers told executives at weekend meetings in Washington to expect more financial rules, especially for the largest firms, after international regulators set minimum standards in Basel last month. If countries surpass that accord, they will deny banks a level playing field and impede growth, chief executive officers including Deutsche Bank AG’s Josef Ackermann and Standard Chartered Plc’s Peter Sands warned at the event, hosted by the Institute of International Finance.

Pimco’s El-Erian Says Industrial Economies Risk `Lost Decade’ (Bloomberg)
El-Erian said governments and central banks haven’t detected the “ongoing paradigm shift” in their economies that will require remedies beyond stimulus programs. Among the fault lines he spots are strained balanced sheets, persistently high unemployment and a misunderstanding of financial markets.

Cigar Guy Unmasked (Daily Mail)
Guy is golf fan Rupesh Shingadia, a 30-year-old investment analyst in the City – and a very reluctant star. ‘I am embarrassed and overwhelmed,’ he said in an exclusive interview. ‘Never in a million years could I have expected anything like this. It is truly surreal.’ Rupesh said his costume was a ‘tribute’ to Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez. Continue reading »

$$$ While no one foresees a junk-bond bust on the Drexel scale, the explosive growth of the market for risky corporate bonds has some people worrying. Interest rates have fallen so far — the yield on two-year United States Treasury securities sank to a record low of 0.36 percent on Thursday — that investors are turning to riskier and riskier securities for relatively high yields. The typical junk bond pays an annual rate of 7.5 percent. Wall Street is happy to oblige. As one veteran high-yield banker put it: “You need to put in the dish what the dog wants to eat.” [NYT]

$$$ 5 Myths About TARP, by Tim Geithner [WaPo]

$$$ Anna Chapman waves off space rocket in Kazakhstan [Guardian] Continue reading »