Banks' Pay and Bonuses

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, when you mentioned that "cuts were made only because of recent business conditions in SEA", were you referring primarily to equity-based sales or does it include to other areas as well (e.g. M&A and DCM)? From what I saw around, the market in DCM and M&A for SEA isn't that great either..

Not sure what you mean by equity sales...I thought we were talking about IBD here?

Debt markets and M&A activity in SEA hasn't been strong since.......forever. Recent pullback and cuts are due mainly to drop in equity underwriting and not debt or M&A activity since there isn't a ton of debt or M&A activity in the SEA region anyway due to its infancy.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not sure what you mean by equity sales...I thought we were talking about IBD here?

Debt markets and M&A activity in SEA hasn't been strong since.......forever. Recent pullback and cuts are due mainly to drop in equity underwriting and not debt or M&A activity since there isn't a ton of debt or M&A activity in the SEA region anyway due to its infancy.

Apologies - I meant to say ECM. Okay, I thought that I read somewhere that MacQ has decided to trim its M&A bankers as they recently realised that Singapore's companies (1) aren't very open to M&A; (2) prefer to do it in-house. I was wondering how true it is, and whether it's only a recent thing.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Apologies - I meant to say ECM. Okay, I thought that I read somewhere that MacQ has decided to trim its M&A bankers as they recently realised that Singapore's companies (1) aren't very open to M&A; (2) prefer to do it in-house. I was wondering how true it is, and whether it's only a recent thing.

Not sure where you read that from but if it's true then the following should explain.

It is somewhat true that Singapore (or Asian companies in general) firms are not as open to M&A as compared to their American or European counterparts. Alot of it is due to culture differences and what not. You must remember that a much higher percentage of businesses in Asia are family businesses and therefore, family controlled. Convincing an Asian family clientele to sell 51% equity in their family business? I would much rather fancy my chances at getting into Harvard law.

Also, more specific to MacQ, I think part of the reason why they're cutting back is also because they might be realizing that the investment banking business (IBD, S&T etc) is a very scalable business. i.e. clients realize that big players can offer more and at better value. Much respect to MacQ for toughing it out but 9/10 times the business flow goes to the big players in SEA (the BBs like GS, JPM, CS, MS etc and perhaps the big local banks like OCBC and DBS).

I think people are getting too caught up over a few isolated cuts in the business. These cuts and pullbacks happen all the time. It doesn't mean business is dying.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not sure where you read that from but if it's true then the following should explain.

It is somewhat true that Singapore (or Asian companies in general) firms are not as open to M&A as compared to their American or European counterparts. Alot of it is due to culture differences and what not. You must remember that a much higher percentage of businesses in Asia are family businesses and therefore, family controlled. Convincing an Asian family clientele to sell 51% equity in their family business? I would much rather fancy my chances at getting into Harvard law.

Also, more specific to MacQ, I think part of the reason why they're cutting back is also because they might be realizing that the investment banking business (IBD, S&T etc) is a very scalable business. i.e. clients realize that big players can offer more and at better value. Much respect to MacQ for toughing it out but 9/10 times the business flow goes to the big players in SEA (the BBs like GS, JPM, CS, MS etc and perhaps the big local banks like OCBC and DBS).

I think people are getting too caught up over a few isolated cuts in the business. These cuts and pullbacks happen all the time. It doesn't mean business is dying.

Thanks for the insights; they were refreshing to me, especially for the last paragraph. And true, MacQ fell out of the Top 20 position in the M&A league for 2014. Have a great week ahead.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Don't think it's the clear cut FO people are referring to (usually when people say FO here they mean IBD, S&T or ER). 5xk+ p.a. is impossible for a BB FO position.

Read thread starter definition: not referring to top FO, normal FO.
Didn't say I was in BB, just a normal commercial bank.
So is my sum reasonable?

Not sure about Singapore, but I'm a first year analyst at a BB in London, getting £50,000 as base and bonus depends really on your performance, we don't go by months, but rather as a percentage of your p&l. My desk does fixed income quant strategies, bonus can be pretty substantial, more than your base at times, but the EU is introducing a bonus cap and a 50% tax on bonuses above £25,000. So in the end, we probably end up earning lesser take home pay Anyone has any advice if Singapore has any well known quant shops to move to? I know jump trading and Hudson River have a presence here.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not sure about Singapore, but I'm a first year analyst at a BB in London, getting £50,000 as base and bonus depends really on your performance, we don't go by months, but rather as a percentage of your p&l. My desk does fixed income quant strategies, bonus can be pretty substantial, more than your base at times, but the EU is introducing a bonus cap and a 50% tax on bonuses above £25,000. So in the end, we probably end up earning lesser take home pay Anyone has any advice if Singapore has any well known quant shops to move to? I know jump trading and Hudson River have a presence here.

JT is one of the best employers.

The person who posted the bit about JPM not paying their interns 10k doesn't have a clue. I know of several friends who interned at JPM, and they are paid 10k in FO roles. No joke, I saw the pay slip/amt that HR sent them.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The person who posted the bit about JPM not paying their interns 10k doesn't have a clue. I know of several friends who interned at JPM, and they are paid 10k in FO roles. No joke, I saw the pay slip/amt that HR sent them.

yeah, just go to Amarone restaurant at lunch-time, you see many millionaires minted in JPM, GIC, etc eating buffalo mozzarella & parma ham for appetizer, and sipping st pellegrino. Main course is of course lobster
For multi-millionaires MDs, they go to China club in floor 52, yummy dim sum...
Later we head off to fitness first in floor 9 to burn off the excess calories, before going to red dot building next door to pick up babes... haha your 10k/mth paycheck fantasy

Originally Posted by Unregistered

yeah, just go to Amarone restaurant at lunch-time, you see many millionaires minted in JPM, GIC, etc eating buffalo mozzarella & parma ham for appetizer, and sipping st pellegrino. Main course is of course lobster
For multi-millionaires MDs, they go to China club in floor 52, yummy dim sum...
Later we head off to fitness first in floor 9 to burn off the excess calories, before going to red dot building next door to pick up babes... haha your 10k/mth paycheck fantasy

Your obviously know nothing about the reality of the industry.