HSBC strengthens Asian equities team [FinanceAsia] HSBC added three executives including Chetan Patni, managing director and head of execution and sales trading in India, Gerardo Pablo, head of program trading for Asia-Pacific, and Sung Choi, head of international equity sales. RBC Dexia Investor Services hired David Dibben to lead its global fund products group. [Finalternatives] Adarsh Sinha picked to head Asia Pacific G10 foreign exchange at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research.... Read more

The CFA Institute recently released results for two levels of the June Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams. If you're already in or thinking about signing up for the CFA program, what do the recent and historical pass rates for those exams say about your prospects of making it through the program? Really, not much. During the past five years, roughly 40 percent of candidates who took the CFA Level I and... Read more

The reality of weak top-line performance at the largest investment banks is belatedly sinking in, raising concerns staff cuts could hit late this year if industry-wide volume and profits from trading don't pick up within a few months. Over the past 12 months, many global institutions aggressively rebuilt trading and investment banking teams they had cut back during 2007 and 2008. They were rewarded with healthy profits in the second half... Read more

Pimco hires Gordon from Goldman Sachs Asset Management to lead new emerging markets equity team that will grow to four to six people in London. GSAM promotes Flax to replace Gordon [Bloomberg News] Lazard said to hire Hasiotis from BofA as co-head of European PE advisory division, starting in November [Financial News] N.Y. Fed moves Dahlgren to head of bank supervision from head of special investments management group, starting in January when... Read more

BlackRock plans a major expansion of its advisory and exchange-traded funds operations, particularly in Asia, now that it's nearly digested its acquisition of Barclays Global Investors. The advisory business, BlackRock Solutions, is understaffed at present, in the view of Chief Executive Laurence Fink. “We see huge opportunities with BlackRock Solutions," he told investors during Wednesday's second-quarter earnings conference call. "We’re hiring quite a few people in building it out.” Signaling both... Read more

Despite second-quarter revenue declines and bottom-line losses for some of its many divisions, Citigroup says it remains committed to reinvesting and new hiring, particularly in information technology and in its international operations. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said during Friday's conference call: "While we have maintained expense discipline, we are reinvesting in our core businesses, including significant investments in technology." The investments will be self-funded by Citi’s ongoing asset sales, he adds. Pandit... Read more

Is an uptick in derivatives job creation looming? It could be, now that a U.S. regulatory overhaul that largely spares banks' derivatives activities is finally about to become law. Recent steps by both Daiwa Capital Markets and JPMorgan underline the point. The case for a derivatives revival is laid out by Simon Boughey in a recent Financial News column. He concludes: Daiwa Capital Markets clearly believes there is plenty of life in... Read more

JPMorgan Names New Joint Leaders of U.S. Investment Unit [FT] JPMorgan promoted Jeff Urwin and Kevin Willsey to co-heads of North America investment banking, succeeding Doug Braunstein who was named CFO in June. The move completes the recasting of the investment bank division's executive ranks that began with the dismissal of Bill Winters as global securities co-head at the end of 2009. Main Street Lifts JPMorgan [WSJ] Second-quarter profit from JPMorgan's investment-banking division... Read more

Citing improved market conditions, mortgage insurer PMI adds sales executives for four U.S. regions [PMI Group] Deutsche Bank hires Nemes as global head of capital introductions, the same role she held at BofA Merrill Lynch. To start in October, she succeeds Capstick, who left Deutsche to become Bank of America's head of prime brokerage for EMEA [Financial News] Blackstone Group hires Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's M&A practice head Finley as chief legal... Read more

Where Are Wall Street’s Earnings Going to Come From? [DealJournal] Second-quarter investment-banking revenue figures from Dealogic raise the question: Where is Wall Street’s revenue going to come from this earnings season? Not from M&A, debt and equity underwriting and syndicated loans, where revenue down 11.5% from the first quarter and 15.7% from the second quarter last year. While Wall Street has been able to count on trading revenue to make up... Read more

Recent governmental moves are prompting banks to hire more securitization professionals in Europe, but not in the U.S. Banks in Europe are gradually adding senior-level specialists in asset-backed securities in anticipation of selling ABS deals to investors, instead of relying exclusively on an emergency lending facility the European Central Bank has offered since 2007. Up to 1.25 trillion euros ($1.55 trillion) of securitized assets created over the past two year and... Read more

Goldman Sachs May Try Ad Campaign [WSJ The Source] News that the vampire scapegoat is considering ditching its old-line, media-shy PR strategy in favor of a high-visibility "corporate branding campaign" signals expanded career opportunities for media relations and investor relations pros - both at Goldman and elsewhere on Wall Street. Citadel Suffers Raft of London Departures [Financial News] Alex Maddox, the head of the Chicago-based hedge fund's European securitization desk left last... Read more

JPMorgan Names Braunstein C.F.O. in Shake-Up [Dealbook] JPMorgan Chase continued to shuffle its top management ranks, including by appointing one of its most senior investment bankers as its new chief financial officer. Douglas L. Braunstein, currently the head of investment banking for the Americas, will replace Michael Cavanagh as JPMorgan’s financial chief. Why Wall Street’s Second Quarter Earnings Are Going to Stink [DealJournal] Consider these numbers from Credit Suisse Group and Dealogic:... Read more

TIAA-CREF elevates Van Dolsen from EVP to COO and taps Adams, who joined in January from Fidelity, as EVP of new shared services group. Client Services EVP Beams is leaving the company [TIAA-CREF, via BW] Jefferies hires Cowen's Barish as senior equity research analyst covering restaurant sector from S.F. office. Farmer's coverage will shift to food and beverage companies [Jefferies, via BW] Jefferies hires Savelli-Timsit and Simon from ING as head and... Read more

SEC Is Hiring More Experts To Assess Complex Financial Systems [Washington Post] The agency is bringing in some of the industry's most highly respected quants, some trained in nuclear physics, together with experience assembling derivatives and running hedge funds. Cap Bankers’ Bonuses at Half Their Salary, EU Lawmakers Say [Bloomberg News] A committee of European Parliament lawmakers voted to cap bankers' bonuses at 50 percent of salary, cap directors' salaries at bailed-out banks... Read more

Cantor Fitzgerald reportedly plans to more than double headcount in equities sales and trading, but the approximately 100 new slots will be concentrated in London and Asia and focus on equity-linked derivatives and securities such as convertible bonds. Chief Executive Shawn Matthews told Bloomberg News: We’re looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Our biggest opportunity is in London, where the capital-markets divisions had been controlled by larger... Read more

Cantor to Double Equities Team, Increase Trading in Derivatives [Bloomberg News] Cantor Fitzgerald plans to hire about 100 traders in London and Asia for equity-linked derivatives and convertible bonds in the next 12 months, in line with plans to more than double its equities division. Banks Queasy As Reform Deal Nears [Politico] Wall Street is no longer confident that Congress will drop a provision that would force banks to spin off their derivatives... Read more

Authorities' move to overhaul how derivatives are traded has convinced firms that run futures and options exchanges the future belongs to them, and they're gearing up to hire accordingly. With NYSE Euronext, CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange all neck-and-neck for market share, expect a steady stream of hiring and possibly bidding wars for top talent. “We’ve already been where financial reform is going - on transactions, on clearing, on bringing OTCs into... Read more

Hotshot Traders Leave Wall Street [WSJ] Pending laws and regulations against banks' proprietary trading are sparking a flight of talent to hedge funds. Rothschild to Bolster U.S. Presence [FT] KBC Chiefs Reunite For Hedge Fund Launch [Financial News] It's one in a lengthening pipeline of newly launched hedge funds, as the sector in Europe resumes growing after last year's dearth of start-ups. Barcap Takes Citi Trio; Citi Also Makes Hires [Reuters] Cut Derivatives Volumes Down To... Read more