With the bulge bracket investment banks again on the hunt for technology talent, those lower down the food chain – whether that's tier two investment banks or consultants – are struggling to hold on to IT staff. Some of the larger investment banks – such as Morgan Stanley, Citi and Credit Suisse – have been aggressively growing their technology headcount across a range of asset classes as new projects get... Read more

Wells Fargo is getting back into the commercial mortgage-backed securities that helped fell Wachovia Corp., the bank it bought in 2008. Wells Fargo has added more than 20 bankers and support personnel over the past three months to increase loan originations and bundle them into CMBS. It now has 70 to 80 employees devoted to underwriting and packaging loans for securitization, down from a peak of 120. Other firms moving... Read more

Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 1.2 percent rise in U.S. securities industry employment during the second quarterbig banks simply aren't the best place to look for new spots right now. The reason: They're continuing to retool post-meltdown, says John Mazzei, managing director and head of the financial institutions group for Rand Thompson Consultants. “The large global banks aren’t hiring just yet, as they’re coming to the end of... Read more

Morgan Stanley Employees Do Not Appreciate Management’s New Cheapskate Mentality [Dealbreaker] A tipster to Dealbreaker says Morgan Stanley is scrutinizing travel budgets and company credit cards, and eliminating niceties such as first-class air travel. "The most annoying part is the constant reminder we’re spending too much," says the correspondent. "Not classy." Top Goldman Sachs Execs Make Millions on Stock Sales [Daily Finance] Goldman Sachs says CEO Lloyd Blankfein, President Gary Cohn and... Read more

It's rather predictable (and fairly well-known) that Goldman Sachs uses its own in-house programming language, Slang, to gain an edge through its electronic trading processes. Currently, it's facing a headache as the bank looks to spin off its prop trading desk in that the new venture will no longer have the rights to use Slang, according to a report on CNBC. Consequently, it's "scrambling to hire computer programmers and project managers" in... Read more

The technology skills most sought by financial employers are C, C++ and C#, followed by Java/J2EE, according to an analysis of current eFinancialCareers job postings. "Companies are looking to recruit programmers, database administrators and project managers in various operations including algorithmic trading, risk management and wealth management to name a few," observes Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers North America. The next-most frequent skills the postings ask for are database administrator, SQL... Read more

Social media skills are quickly climbing the list of qualities wealth management hiring managers are seeking, as firms race to meet client demands for better communication and greater transparency. "There's a re-energized push around what people are calling digital or e-commerce," says Bill Liguori, co-founder and partner of Leadership Capital Group, an executive search firm. Financial services organizations, he observes, "are starting to invest money hiring people to build out these... Read more

Opportunities for both IT staff and financial adivsors are on the upswing at TD Ameritrade. The discount broker is ramping up IT spending and plans to invest $30 million in technology and what Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk calls "client-facing" activities in its fiscal year starting in October. That level of tech spending is a multiple of the SEC's $12 million IT upgrade budget for fiscal 2011, Investment News observes. Last week... Read more

If your career plans include working for a regulatory agency, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro's House testimony this week is must reading. Major portions of her text detail SEC hiring plans and organizational changes the agency is making to implement the new Dodd-Frank reform law. Here's a rundown. The law adds or expands SEC responsibilities for over-the-counter derivatives, credit rating agencies and private funds. It requires the panel to promulgate a large... Read more

In financial IT, experienced candidates are plentiful but there is a shortage of new college graduates for junior or entry-level positions, says BNY Mellon's new chief information officer. John Fiore told Wall Street & Technology: If we’re looking for talent that has some amount of time in the workforce, a particular expertise over an extended amount of time with certain technology or subject matter, the available talent pool is good. Unfortunately,... Read more

It's not the mistake or even the crime that slaughters your reputation – it's the cover-up. Richard Nixon learned that lesson the hard way. Now it's Barr Rosenberg's turn. The famed quant's ouster from the influential fund company that bears his name is a sobering reminder that promptly owning up to errors – even costly ones – is essential for both businesses and individuals. Rosenberg's firm, owned by Paris-based AXA S.A.,... Read more

If you’re a client facing, revenue generating, high earning front office banker, you may begrudge sharing your production with swathes of people in operations, risk, IT, and accounting. It may please you, therefore, to learn that rationalization remains in vogue. Citigroup and Deutsche have been doing it. Now SocGen’s doing it too. According to Jean Pierre Lambert, an analyst at KBW, the French bank is undergoing a rationalisation process to reduce... Read more

Financial companies will likely increase data management hires in coming months, because better controlling the quality and distribution of financial data is becoming central to institutions' strategies in the wake of the credit crisis. Many banks and trading firms are now looking for chief data officers, Wall Street & Technology reports. That could presage broader moves to enlarge and strengthen data management teams. No longer considered a minor part of information... Read more

Market data professionals just got their own certification exam and designation, and a few financial employers say it could become a differentiator among candidates for financial information jobs. The Software & Information Industry Association's Financial Information Services Division (FISD) recently launched what it calls the first-ever professional credential for the market and reference data industry. The Financial Information Associate (FIA) certification requires passing an online exam that covers financial markets, data,... Read more

Andreessen Horowitz hires Margit Wennmachers, co-founder of tech PR firm OutCast Communications, as its third partner [NY Times] Software-focused PE firm Symphony Technology Group hires Langone from Redwood Capital Group as VP-business development [Symphony Technology, via BW] RBC Capital Markets hires Nomura's Fothergill as head of European equities [RBC] Wesleyan University endowment hires Martin from Yale Investments Office as CIO. She's also a former member of U.S. Olympic rowing team [Wesleya... Read more

MasterCard launched a R&D lab in several existing locations, concentrating talent in hope of speeding its pace of payment technology innovations. The move spotlights the need for engineers who can create and commercialize new tools for mobile banking, e-commerce, data security and person-to-person payments. Bank Technology News reports: Led by Garry Lyons, the former CEO of Orbiscom, the new R&D unit, called MasterCard Labs, will include a team of tech engineers that... 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

RBS Nears €400m Private Equity Sale [FT] HSBC in Talks To Sell Private Equity Arms [Reuters] Cohrs Caps Career With Deutsche Bank on M&A Map Next to Goldman [Bloomberg News] Morgan Stanley's Asia Chairman to Step Down [NY Times] Larger Financial Firms Win Big With Greater Focus on Growth, Highly Educated Workforce [Wall Street & Technology] Laos Set For Capitalist Leap Into Stock Market [<a href="http://www.ny... Read more

The IT skills most sought by banks these days include managing new data technologies such as server virtualization, project management, and anything related to managing risk. But although banks are doing more IT hiring than a year ago, finding a job remains a tough slog that typically takes six to eight months – twice as long as before the recession. Executive recruiter Steve Landburg of Claymore Partners told Bank Technology... Read more