Lay offs are sweeping across Wall Street, with firms aiming to cut costs as equity and bond trading slow, Bloomberg reports. Goldman Sachs plans to eliminate 230 jobs in New York starting in September, while Bank of America has already cut 60 jobs in equity sales and trading. Barclay and Credit Suisse are also reducing staff in their investment banking units. Revenue from trading of fixed income instruments dropped around 30... Read more

Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being recruited by banks such as Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as Wall Street jobs wane, according to an article in Bloomberg . The New York-based banks joined Credit Suisse Group AG, Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG at a job fair hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for service personnel aboard the USS Intrepid, a museum in the... Read more

As many large firms trim their equities trading staff, Nomura is building up its equities sales and trading operation, at least in the US. Calling it part of its continued expansion of its Americas Equities division, Nomura, hired three senior traders in US Cash Equities to lead the technology, industrials and consumer sectors. The firm has built its core capabilities across US equities, and has focused on strengthening its cash, sales... Read more

Even if shareholders approve it, the much talked about planned merger of NYSE Euronext and the Deutsche Boerse probably won't happen until the end of this year, says Joe Mecane, Executive Vice President, Co-Head U.S. Cash and Listings for NYSE Euronext. Speaking today at the Sifma Financial Services Technology conference, Mecane shared with eFinancialCareers that once the shareholders vote next month, it will still need approval from about 47 different... Read more

The financial sector is set to shrink its headcount to reflect sliding valuations that have reached their lowest ratio to the S&P 500 since 2009, according to a Bloomberg report . Net revenue at BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Goldman and Morgan Stanley are expected to drop 3.7% in Q2, the fourth year-over-year decline in five quarters. Experts including Meredith Whitney expect this trend will result in Wall Street... Read more

Sometimes using recruiters works better than applying directly to banks. And if you put in extra effort when choosing your consultants, your career could benefit. Here are some reasons why. 1) Screen and select There’s a limited number of large financial services firms and it’s difficult to look into the quality of their internal hiring teams. But recruitment firms are comparatively plentiful, so you should at least be able to find... Read more

For the love of the brand: Chinese candidates shop around to get the best banking labels on their CVs As foreign banks in China compete for a limited number of suitable candidates, it’s becoming more difficult for them to retain staff because job seekers are moving to competitors to give their resumes a short-term boost. [HK] How to extract feedback from a recruiter If you want recruiters to actually call you back... Read more

Johnson Associates are predicting moderate increases in incentive compensation across the financial services industry this year, but they expect that in most cases, bonuses will remain below the highs of 2007. The compensation specialists say key drivers impacting bonuses are "the pace of the recent economic recovery, varying impact of regulation on business activities both globally and regionally, mix of business, and ongoing uncertainty in world markets." As for where they... Read more

This could be a good year for job seekers in the financial sector. The latest eFinancialCareers survey released today found that nearly two out of three (62.1%) financial professionals plan on moving to a new employer in 2011. Moreover, four out of five (80.5%) say their current employer has not offered them any positive incentives to stop them from jumping ship. Perhaps an even more important statistic in terms of... Read more

M&A is looking good. This, according to a Bloomberg article quoting Evercore’s Roger Altman, who predicts the current upswing in deal-making will peak to exceed the record $4 trillion of takeovers at the height of the 2007 merger boom. Altman says M&A cycles tend to last five to seven years, and we are currently two years in. According to the article, hot dealmaking industries include natural resources, health care,... Read more

Other than not getting selected as a possible candidate, nothing’s more painful than the feeling that you’ve left money on the table. If you’ve been lucky enough to get a job offer, or if you’re one of the ones in the final running, it’s probably time for your prospective employer to turn the tables on you. It’s the question you know they’re going to ask. What salary and take are... Read more

Some financial advisors are irate over BrightScope’s new controversial website which allows investors to search for legal information about advisors, according to Investment News. Advisor Pages, a free search site allowing investors to search for professionals using various criteria, includes info on legal disputes and formal complaints, which BrightScope claims comes from FINRA and SEC data. A number of advisors complain this information is out-dated, and their assets are... Read more

HSBC hired Bertrand Delgado as an emerging-markets strategist, luring him away from Roubini Global Economics. [Bloomberg] Goldman’s John Rogers was promoted to executive officer from chief of staff. [DealBook] The SEC named Julius Leiman-Carbia associate director to its broker-dealer examination program. [Investment News] UBS named Paul Knight as the global head of its metals and mining group. [DealBook] Nomura hired Mark Leahy as head of debt origination and fixed income... Read more

If you’re an equity trader looking for a growth spot, this may not be the best time to think about it. Those looking for a rung up the equity trading ladder may face a misstep, at least for the short-term. Despite recent news of large scale hiring in Cantor Fitzgerald’s equities department and reports of additions to come at Societe Generale, insiders suspect that the remainder of 2011 might be... Read more

Former Goldman head of natural resources Raymond Strong, will join Evercore Partners as a senior managing director. [NYTimes] AIG hired Peter Juhas, a financial institutions specialist at Morgan Stanley who advised the government in its dealings with the insurer on its bailout. [DealBook] ING hired Alain Karaoglan to prepare for the initial public offering of U.S. operations after he helped AIG divest businesses. [Businessweek] Citigroup hired former Citadel senior executive... Read more

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. increased its equities department headcount 20% over the past year, bringing those ranks to 400 traders and analysts worldwide, and may go on to increase its staff by another 100 professionals globally, according to recent comments by company CEO Shawn Matthews. Cantor is hoping to build itself into a full-service investment banking boutique that’s “trying to re-create a style of business that disappeared over the years as... Read more

Banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are hiring more senior bankers and salespeople in their foreign-exchange operations, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports: “Banks are snapping up Wall Street staffers disappointed by pay that was down some 10 percent to 15 percent in 2010, including bonuses with a higher component of unpopular restricted stock.” Hiring is especially strong in electronic trade-execution platforms, as well... Read more

Three areas of the country not usually associated with finance are emerging as financial markets centers - Salt Lake City, Seattle and the Raleigh-Cary region of North Carolina. For example, Goldman Sachs’ second largest office in North America is in Salt Lake City, and the Wall Street powerhouse plans to continue growing there. For job seekers, that could mean additional opportunities in investment research, investment management, compliance, operations, technology, human... Read more

The great and glorious guide to networking at Goldman Sachs In much the same vein as the Goldman Sachs guide to interview success, it has come to our attention that there is also a Goldman Sachs guide to networking. It’s part of an altogether more comprehensive Goldman Sachs guide to extracting a job offer from a Goldman Sachs summer internship, but could apply to anyone who wants to schmooze their way... Read more

Low-cost portfolio managers that sell prepackaged portfolios such as MarketRiders and Folio Investing are being eyed as the new wave of investing, as such products have attracted more than $3 billion in assets over the last three years, according to Businessweek . These services are designed to tap the market of attract smaller, self-directed investors with monthly fees as low as $10 -- an underserved group, as traditional brokerages... Read more