Bank of America Corp. co-Chief Operating Officer Thomas K. Montag received a 21 percent raise to $14.5 million for 2012, topping his boss Brian T. Moynihan for the third straight year. Montag, 56, got a $5.46 million cash bonus for 2012, $8.19 million in restricted stock units and an $850,000 base salary, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender said today in a regulatory filing. That compares with the $12 million awarded to Moynihan, 53, giving the chief executive officer a raise of more than 70 percent from 2011. “This says to everybody that Brian is OK with Tom getting a superior compensation; Montag is doing a great job in a business that’s very tough right now,” said Jeanne Branthover, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd. in New York [Bloomberg, earlier]
sad trombones
If clichés were true, the spouses and partners of investment bankers and hedge fund managers would be showered with expensive gifts on Valentine’s Day. Bankers, after all, can afford deliveries of Bollinger and blooms. The reality is less seductive and more sterile. Financial services is not a romantic industry. Bankers aren’t actually seen as desirable dates. A 2012 survey of 5,000 Britons by dating website Match.com found that bankers don’t feature in either sex’s definition of their preferred partners. Most of all, women want to date firemen, teachers and musicians. Men are keenest on nurses, scientists and accountants. One reason, of course, is bankers just don’t have much time for romance. “They tend to work extremely long hours and don’t really cross paths with anyone romantically. They are at their desks a lot,” said Hayley Bystram, a director at elite introductory agency the Bowes Lyons Partnership, which charges £6k for alerting like-minded professionals to each other’s existence. Many of her clients are financial professionals. [eFinancial]
Charlie Gasparino: Blackstone President Tony James Shot The White House A Résumé When He Found Stephen Schwarzman Was Leaving Everything To The Crabs
By Bess Levin
[via cgasparino]
President Barack Obama, newly re- elected, now confronts two questions that he has been avoiding for more than a year: Who will replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and when…The timing of Geithner’s replacement depends on whether the White House can reach an agreement with the lame duck Congress on a deficit reduction plan to avoid triggering spending cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff. If a deal can be reached before the Jan. 1 deadline, Geithner might leave as soon as it is completed. If the solution is left for the next Congress, Obama may ask Geithner to stay, either to work on a deal or to reassure financial markets about the U.S. government’s ability to trim the deficit. [Bloomberg, earlier re: Tim Geithner's many unapproved requests to go home]
Retired NFL Player Turned Failed Money Manager Self-Conscious About His Investing Skills
By Bess Levin
“It worked for nine years, but mistakes were made,” Harris Barton, 46, says as he sips a coffee at an Italian restaurant in Palo Alto, California. After the demise of HRJ Capital, the firm he co-founded with Ronnie Lott of which Joe Montana was a partner, he says he was embarrassed every time he walked into a place like this in Silicon Valley. “I felt like everyone was looking at me and saying, ‘There he is, the dumb athlete who couldn’t manage his firm.’” [Bloomberg]
Last Friday, hours after a report in the Wall Street Journal claimed FrontPoint’s Steve Eisman was weighing leaving the firm, Eisman put out a statement saying that by “I want to have more control over my destiny” he simply meant “I am in discussions on a structure which will provide me with greater operational flexibility and control over my own business” and that he and Eisman are two souls, one body “now.” And by now he might literally right now, this second. Next week, month, year is anyone’s guess, with sources saying Eisman “will exit before year-end.” But don’t hang those heads too low, FrontPointers. Steve did throw the firm and its investors this (sad trom)bone. Read more »
The last month or so has not been the best of times for Phil Falcone. Harbinger Capital’s flagship is down, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone and some others have pulled their money, investors have been giving him shit for borrowing $113 million from one of his funds (where redemptions had been frozen) in order to pay personal taxes, he had to put up his art as collateral to borrow even more cash (for what, it’s unclear), he’s being investigated by the SEC and Wilbur, the family’s dancing pig, has been such a god damn bitch. He told the Times none of this is any way a big deal (“The last thing I’m thinking about in the morning is whether I have a cash-flow problem,” he said) and now, he’s be forced to defend his liquidity again. This time, with regard to the mortgage he took out on his house over the summer, after buying it for $49 million in cash. Read more »
Two months ago, in light of the possibility that the majority of your bonuses would be paid out in stock this year, Smith & Wollensky took out the following ad in the New York Times. Read more »
I’ve been wondering for some time now whether or not being employed by Madoff Securities when Bernie made his big reveal would be the professional equivalent of pulling a Ping, i.e. taking a piss in an underling’s mouth, i.e. would it make it difficult for you to find future work at a firm that doesn’t have the sort of outside the box thinking that allows for such things. Apparently, the answer is yes, particularly if you share DNA with the Ponz Master. Yes, my pets, it’s true– Mark and Andy Madoff, employees 2 and 3, sons 1 and 2, have been having difficulty finding work. Like they have a bad rap or something. It’s gotten so bad that they might just have to start their own firms. They’ve also started crying in front of other people, as is their wont.
Mark Madoff, who worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for more than 20 years, climbing up the ladder to director of proprietary trading, recently met with at least two Wall Street contacts to get their opinions on whether he could find another job in finance, people familiar with the discussions say. He talked about working on a trading desk or in trading technology, asking one person to keep him in mind if he hears of any openings.
“He’s untouchable in any firm that deals with the public,” says someone who talked to Mr. Madoff. He was near tears while describing his feelings about his father, the person added, asking why anyone would bring his son to work at a crooked investment firm. Another person approached by the 45-year-old Mr. Madoff was told by his lawyer not to respond.
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SoFi Answers the Call to Refinance Student Loans and Provides Unique Community Benefits
This is a guest post written by SoFi’s CEO, Mike Cagney.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
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In a recent article posted on MainStreet.com SoFi General Counsel Rob Lavet had this to say about SoFi’s ReFi products: Read more »
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1. She Isn’t Certified
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