What Really Has Wall Street Worried
It isn't Occupy Wall Street. It's the prospect of a shifting market and pay cuts and layoffs
October 20, 2011
Max Abelson
(snip)
On Oct. 18, Goldman Sachs reported that it lost $393 million in the third quarter, excluding dividends for preferred shareholders, after the value of some investments fell and revenue declined in trading, asset management, and securities underwriting. Michael Karp, chief executive officer of New York recruitment firm Options Group, says Wall Street pay will fall 30 percent this year, and more for executives. It will be flat or down even in businesses doing relatively well, such as emerging markets and commodities, he adds.
Karp says he met last month over tea at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York with a trader who made $500,000 last year at one of the six largest U.S. banks. The trader, a 27-year-old Ivy League graduate, complained that he has worked harder this year and will be paid less. The headhunter told him to stay put and collect his bonus. “This is very demoralizing to people,” Karp says, “especially young guys who have gone to college and wanted to come onto the Street, having dreams of becoming millionaires.”
New rules from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, taking effect starting in 2013, will more than double capital requirements for banks, cutting into profitability. To reduce their vulnerability to market swings, banks including Goldman Sachs and UBS have cut leverage by more than half, meaning they are using less borrowed money to boost trading profits.
“Sharply” falling earnings will lead to almost 10,000 financial-services job cuts in New York City by the end of 2012, according to an Oct. 11 report by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The biggest global banks already had been cutting jobs at the fastest rate since 2008 when Bank of America said last month that it will eliminate 30,000 positions. London-based HSBC, Europe’s largest lender, aims to shed the same amount. UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, is shrinking after a $2.3 billion trading loss disclosed in September.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/what-really-has-wall-street-worried-10202011.html:cry: :cry: :cry:
( bold mine )