More bad news for Deutsche’s fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) professionals. Following their recent loss of market share and their ongoing US regulatory tribulations, it seems the bank is lining up an emergency replacement for co-chief executive Anshu Jain. There are allegedly fears that Jain will be implicated in the currency manipulation which has already claimed several Deutsche FX scalps.
Reuters reports that Deutsche has its eye on John Cryan, former finance chief of UBS and currently COO of Temasek, as Jain’s alternative.
FICC professionals at the German bank have reason to feel concerned. As head of Deutsche’s global markets business since 2004, Jain built the FICC business and is an important source of its support internally. – Even after the recent poor performance of FICC, Jain has avoided cutting headcount, saying instead that the business’s relative decline is an indication that further investment is required. As co-CEO with retail-focused Juergen Fitschen, Cryan could be far less amenable. Deutsche isn’t commenting.
Separately, Facebook’s $19m acquisition of mobile chat app WhatsApp confirms that big banking is no longer the place to be. With the exception of Morgan Stanley, the largest banks are being frozen out of the deal. Facebook is being advised by Allen & Company and Weil, Gotshal & Manges. WhatsApp is being advised by Morgan Stanley and Fenwick & West. Dealbook reports that the deal was sealed not by big swinging bankers and their overworked minions, but by Mark Zuckerberg and Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s co-founder and chief executive themselves. Zuckerberg and Koum reportedly met in a cafe and then had a series of dinners to discuss the deal, including one at which they consumed a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries intended for Zuckerberg’s wife. Bankers sound superfluous to the process. They also look like the very poor relations – the $19bn price paid for WhatsApp is being shared between just 55 employees.
Meanwhile:
Brian Moynihan is getting paid $14m for 2013, which is more than ever before. (Wall Street Journal)
RBS has sold its equity derivatives arm to BNP Paribas. (Telegraph)
SocGen has hired Marcus Consolini, most recently head of electronic execution sales and trading for JP Morgan Asia, and Andrew Lee, most recently an executive at international at agency brokerage BTIG in Hong Kong. (Financial News)
“Like a lot of us, I grew up in an academic system that often held my hand. Banking wasn’t like that. If you had a piece of analysis due, and you ran into a roadblock in the middle of the night, your options were to (a) figure it out or (b) figure it out.” (LinkedIn)
“I never saw anyone do coke on Wall Street, and I think that’s a stereotype that doesn’t play out. The sad thing is, most of the drugs people were taking (Adderall, Modafinil, etc.) were meant to help them stay up later and work.” (Wall Street Oasis)
How Tony Blair would advise you handle stress (‘definitely sleeping pills’). (BBC)
Why young bankers are so miserable. (The Atlantic)