eFinancialCareers

For about ten years of my life I was on a flight at least once a week. Quick hops to visit a local office for a day or two, 18 hour long hauls to run a conference, several weeks in multiple locations to launch an ‘initiative’ across regions. Offsetting the number of visits I made to check up on off shored teams alone would require several forests of trees to... Read more

Sweden and Norway are rapidly developing a reputation as something of a hub for green and responsible investing, in turn leading to growing opportunities for asset and fund managers, as well as local banks, to carve out a niche within the ethical, environmental and responsible investment arena. In January Swedish firm BMC announced it was to build a $150m (€109m) bio-energy plant in the US, along with a German partner, while... Read more

An MBA is a question of timing: get it wrong and you’ll find yourself spending £40k+ on two years out of the market when pay is peaking; even worse you may then find it impossible to get back in due to a glut of recently redundant experienced analysts. Equally, however, if you’re determined to do an MBA and you put it off for too long waiting for optimal market conditions, you’ll... Read more

The Nordic bonus debate continues unabated. After relatively polarized moves among the region's largest banks over the past couple of weeks, Handelsbanken's chief executive has questioned the need for variable compensation and presented the case for fixed pay in the industry. Pär Boman, chief executive of the Nordic region's second largest bank, has suggested that there's no commercial rationale for paying bonuses and that there should be a shift towards longer... Read more

Both Nordea and SEB have had their problems throughout 2009, but have emerged from the year in comparatively decent shape. As a result, both firms are planning on upping headcount in 2010. The fourth quarter reports of both institutions aren't particularly positive – Nordea's net income fell to €448m from €638m for the same period last year, while SEB posted a 93% fall in quarterly earnings to SEK257m. The slumping Baltic... Read more

As well as its highly-publicised bonus cancellation, Swedbank has shown some 2,571 employees the door this year and posted its fourth quarterly loss in a row today. But it's "feasible" that the bank could return to profit in 2010. Swedbank reported a fourth quarter net loss of SEK1.8bn, compared to a profit of SEK1.92bn for the same period last year, after continuing problems in Russia, the Ukraine and Baltics. Bonuses were slashed... Read more

Bonus payments for Danske Bank traders rose 14% last year, as the bank paid out nearly DKr840m (€112.3m) in performance-related compensation. The figures emerged as the bank posted group profits for last year of DKr1.7bn (€200m), up from DKr1bn (€134m) in 2008, figures described by chief executive Peter Straarup as “unsatisfactory”, though he added it was “encouraging” the bank had still managed to achieve a profit “in a year marked by... Read more

Swedbank has taken the unprecedented step of cancelling 2009 bonus payments in response to rising public anger over banking pay. The real question, though, is whether other Swedish banks – with significantly larger bonus pots – will follow suit. Michael Wolf, the bank's CEO, says this shouldn't be interpreted as an overhaul of its remuneration system, but a "unique decision in light of the bank's losses and government efforts". “There is still... Read more

An MBA is a question of timing: get it wrong and you’ll find yourself spending £40k+ on two years out of the market when pay is peaking; even worse you may then find it impossible to get back in due to a glut of recently redundant experienced analysts. Equally, however, if you’re determined to do an MBA and you put it off for too long waiting for optimal market conditions, you’ll... Read more

After 20+ years of full time employment (largely with rating agencies), the start-up agency I was working for was suddenly closed in Jan. 2008. Since then, I have gotten some contract work but offers are getting less frequent now. I believe some of the CV issues I have are 1) too much time worked at rating agencies (unfortunately not seen as having relevant commercial experience in many financial services sectors)... Read more

Several things have changed since we last looked at different banks’ different compensation structures a few weeks ago. Here, therefore, is a new list of banks according to the generosity of their bonus systems. Let us know if you have anything to add. 1). JPMorgan : Despite being a notorious cost cutter, JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon has come out strongly in favour of unhindered bonuses. Average compensation per head... Read more

For about ten years of my life I was on a flight at least once a week. Quick hops to visit a local office for a day or two, 18 hour long hauls to run a conference, several weeks in multiple locations to launch an ‘initiative’ across regions. Offsetting the number of visits I made to check up on off shored teams alone would require several forests of trees to... Read more

Safe and sensible can have its advantages in the current climate, but could the stubborn reluctance of Nordic banks to dip their toes into the Middle East – something barely on the cards even before the Dubai debt crisis – leave Scandinavian bankers playing catch-up in the future? The headlines emanating from the Emirate over the past few days have of course been dire but, in fact, many big international banks... Read more

European M&A activity has plummeted this year, but within the Nordic region deal volume is rising, optimism is growing and, crucially, there are signs of new hiring within M&A teams. According data from mergermarket, the value of European M&A transactions in the first three quarters of this year fell by 70% compared with the same period last year, and 48% by volume. Within this, Nordic deals made up just 3.4% of activity... Read more

Heavy exposure to the slumping Baltic states has played a major part in Swedbank's SKr3.36bn first quarter loss. The upshot of this, however, is that the bank will create around 240 jobs for a new risk management unit to tackle distressed debt in the region. In spite of the headline figure, most divisions of Swedbank actually performed fairly well. It's just that impairment on loans increased by SKr6.6bn (from SKr0.2bn), of... Read more