This question was asked at an interview for a junior-level position at an investment bank. The background It was a third-round interview and the panel seemed to have exhausted their questions. But as the interview drew to a close, the head interviewer said: “As we have five minutes left, could you tell us something remarkable?” How the candidate responded My mind was blank, but before I could stop the words... Read more

The $30 million package given to ex-UBS energy banker Stephen Tauber by Citigroup is a sign the bank is distancing from government aid. [Dealbook via WSJ] Commerzbank plan to cut 1,650 more investment banking jobs as part of consolidation following its acquisition of Dresdner Bank. [Bloomberg] B-school graduates in India will soon be subject to testing as part of the job application process at many large firms. [Businessweek] British private equity firm 3i... Read more

JPMorgan hired former Cantor Fitzgerald exec Irvin Goldman to help in its capital markets business. [Bloomberg] Nomura appointed Gregg Fatzinger as Managing Director and Head of Consumer Retail for the Americas. [Reuters] BMO Capital Markets named Ilias Konstantopoulos as Head of Investment & Corporate Banking. [Marketwatch] Macquarie named Tim Gould as head of its US equity markets division. [

As part of its look into how the investment banking world has transformed since the halcyon days of 2007, Financial News has assessed how the rankings have changed since then across various business areas. The results, perhaps surprisingly, show that although the deck has been shuffled quite significantly since that time, the firms at the top of the tree have retained the top spot. Goldman Sachs remains first within sales... Read more

CIBC hired Helen Hayes, who will be based in London and lead the Canadian bank's sales to European clients. [Globe and Mail] Philadelphia-based middle market lender LBC Credit Partners named Jeffrey L. Blumin as a managing director in its New York office. [Distressed Debt] Columbia Management appointed Toby Cromwell and Mark Dence help build out its institutional business. [Businesswire] Fund of fund Hermes BPK Partners named Pawel Kisielewsk... Read more

Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney has made a name for herself with her dire predictions for years. But last month she got the Street's attention when she said that securities firms would shed 80,000 jobs over the next year-and-a-half. Now that Bank of America has announced a slew of cuts in its investment bank, many are wondering whether lower revenues will lead others to follow suit. And, whether Whitney will be... Read more

Morgan Stanley hired four financial advisers, overseeing $443 million in assets, in its New York office. [Reuters] Barclays named David Lewis as head of its Americas banking unit, where he'll oversee expansion of the bank's regional banking products and services over 14 offices. [PR Newswire] Merrill Lynch Wealth Management hired David Barnett, a financial adviser managing $180 million in assets, from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. [WSJ] Credit Suisse's Canadian unit hired Scott Fromson... Read more

Deutsche Bank named Mitch Braselton and Matthew O'Connor as managing directors in the institutional client group for debt in North America. [Comtex via Trading Markets] BNP Paribas named Laure Morsy as its new global head of the financial institutions group. [London South East via Reuters] Cantor Fitzgerald hired Garett Stoffels and Steven Tuch to co-head its private capital group, part of the firm's investment banking group. [Businesswire] Barclay's named Patrick Ramsey managing director... Read more

A study by The Wall Street Journal indicates the days of an Ivy league degree being the key to success everywhere may be over. But not on Wall Street. Ivy Leaguers remain perched atop the pecking order. Jobs in investment banking, for example, are still dominated by those from elite academic institutions. A Harvard MBA or a degree from Wharton remain the best way to gain entry into firms like Goldman... Read more

Bank of America appointed former hedge-fund manager Mike Lyons to a corporate strategy and planning post to help it decide which businesses to sell. [Bloomberg] Citigroup hired London hedge fund manager Roger Bacon to lead Asia-Pacific operations for its private bank. [Finalternatives] UBS Wealth Management named Alexander Kobler to Asia-Pacific head of investment products and services. [FinanceAsia] Goldman Sachs named Brett Olsher as a partner / managing director and co-head of the natural... Read more

Citigroup named ex-Morgan Stanley banker Cecilia "Cece" Stewart as president of its North American retail bank. Citigroup also lured Will Howle from Morgan Stanley and named himchief operating officer of U.S. retail banking. [Bloomberg UBS Wealth Management Americas named Todd Locicero as manager of its Los Angeles private wealth management office. [WSJ UBS hired Thomas Jenkins and Jack Schecter as financial advisers. Combined, the two manage assets of $880 million. Jenkins will... Read more

With all the talk of layoffs and pay cuts, who'd think investment banking has actually been growing these last few years? Apparently, that's the case. Financial News says the industry today is "more concentrated and more efficient." It has higher margins - 38.8 percent pre-tax, on average, compared with 37.1 percent in 2007 - and a higher return on margins than it had before the credit crisis hit. Revenues in the... Read more

Lehman Brothers hired 100 people in London this summer. The failed bank has had to recruit technology professionals to help separate it's banking platform from Nomura's and Barclays', which took over its operations. [Telegraph] Citigroup has lost 12 European managing directors to the likes of Bank of America and Barclays. [Bloomberg] Former Financial adviser Kenneth I. Starr pled guilty to stealing $50 million from celebrities Uma Thurman, Al Pacino, and Sylvester Stallone.... Read more

Describe your career path. I graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1981. From 1981 to 1987 I worked in Goldman Sachs' equity department. I left in 1987 to found Metropolitan Capital, a hedge fund specializing in risk arbitrage. I returned to Goldman in 1990 to manage domestic derivative sales, trading, and research. In 1992 I joined Wasserstein Perella to help create a equity trading operation. In 1993 I... Read more

Describe your career path. I've been fortunate to have repeatedly landed positions that provided me with a wealth of experience and ample room to grow. My first job was with a small personal financial management team where I quickly understood the long-term value proposition of index investing. From there, I went to Dow Jones Indexes, working my way to become manager of quantitative analysis. There, I found a niche in quantitative... Read more

Describe Your Career Path. I graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of commerce degree in economics and accounting. After graduation, I joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in its audit group, working in both Kuala Lumpur and Toronto. During this time I became a chartered accountant. While I enjoyed what I was doing I realized that what I really wanted to do was help companies look forward and to grow. I moved... Read more

Jason Todd has jumped from Morgan Stanley to become global head of equity strategy at Religare Capital Markets, part of India’s Religare Enterprises. The firm has been aggressively building out its global emerging markets business. [Asian Investor] Scotia Capital named Donald Njegovan, former lead mining banker at Toll Cross Securities, to its mining investment-banking team. [WSJ] Societe Generale hired Timothy Gee as head of equities execution services for the Americas. Gee will... Read more

As a salve for recent articles about hiring freezes and redundancies, here’s something more uplifting: an affirmation that there is hiring happening, somewhere. Here’s where: 1) Equity research Yes, there IS hiring in equity research. Financial News today reports that MF Global wants 20 equity analysts "across the world" before the end of the year. According to one equity research headhunter, six of these hires will be taking place in London. Also hiring... Read more

Goldman Sachs may soon name 100 new partners. The firm is expected to reshuffle the ranks of its elite in November. On the flip side, as many as 60 execs will lose their partnership this year as the firm brings in fresh talent. [New York Times] UBS Wealth Management Americas is set to open an office in New York. In a memo, David McWilliams, an Eastern division director for the company,... Read more

Securities firms will cut as many as 80,000 jobs globally - about 10 percent of their workforce - in the next 18 months, predicts Meredith Whitney. The cuts will begin after 2010 compensation is distributed. And for more good news: In a report obtained by Bloomberg, Whitney says comp will be "down dramatically." Her reasoning: “The key product drivers of Wall Street’s revenues and profits over the past decade have... Read more