Investment bankers aren't the only people benefiting from the balmy financial services climate. Management consultants are doing very well too. Nicholas Barton, head of the commerce practice at recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, says firms like the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co., and Booz Allen Hamilton have dramatically increased headcount in their financial services consulting groups this year. "Until twelve to fifteen months ago, headcount at consulting firms was pretty static," he... Read more

Ratings agencies, such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch, are looking to add to their structured finance teams. But with banks doing the same, agencies are having to be inventive in how they go about doing it. “Everyone is hiring collateralised debt obligation (CDO) people at the moment,” says Andrew Farr, head of structured finance recruitment at Moody’s. “It’s hard to find them – you have to think very carefully... Read more

Asset management firms are casting their recruitment nets into new waters when it comes to hiring analysis staff. Petra Rickmeyer, practice director for global financial services recruitment at search firm Hoggett Bowers, says asset managers are increasingly prepared to hire analysts with strategy consulting or industry backgrounds. “Funds are looking to widen their talent pool,” says Rickmeyer. “People with between four and eight years strategy consulting or industry experience are now seen... Read more

Last week’s big news was the revelation that Andrew Pisker, London-based chief of executive of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), was making a swift exit. Pisker’s retreat follows a shake up in which DrKW is to be folded into the corporate banking division of Dresdner Bank. Stefan Jentzsch, who left German bank HVB earlier this month, will head the new division based in Frankfurt. Pisker’s destination is unknown. In other senior moves,... Read more

The ICMA Centre, a financial services-focused business school attached to the UK’s University of Reading, received a £5m (€7.4m) grant to finance the expansion of its teaching facilities this month. The endowment was a gift from the centre’s benefactor and namesake, the International Capital Markets Association. But Reading is not the only university to run specialist finance courses with outside help. In 2002, Cass Business School, part of the City University,... Read more

There was no shortage of hiring announcements last week, where the weightiest fell in the world of investment banking. Lazard hired Riccardo Pavoncelli, a veteran Morgan Stanley banker, as head of European cross-border transactions. Pavoncelli, who was head of banking in Italy and a co-head of its European media and telecom advisory group, will be based in London. John Crompton, deputy UK head of Morgan Stanley, joined the British Treasury on... Read more