Salient to Investors: Barclays paid 9 senior executives $61 million in bonuses, less than a year after the bank was fined for manipulating benchmark interest rates. Barclays awarded 428 workers more than 1 million pounds in 2012, versus 473 in 2011. 45 percent of all investment-bank employees got no bonus for 2012. Read
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Senator John McCain said JPMorgan’s chief investment office increased risk by mislabeling the synthetic portfolio as a risk-reducing hedge when it was really involved in proprietary trading. Subcommittee Chairman Carl Levin said they found a trading operation that piled on risk, ignored limits on risk taking, hid
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The dwindling role of bond insurance and yields at four-decade lows is fueling demand for muni analysts. Paul Sorbera at Alliance Consulting said the demand has significantly raised salaries. Jeff Burger at Standish Mellon Asset Mgmt said basis points matter in a low-yield environment. Investors have become more confident buying uninsured or lower-rated debt.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Coalition Ltd say investment banks are cutting jobs in equities faster than any other division. Tabb Group says trades that require human involvement cost 2.05 cents per share versus 1.08 cent for those done by computer. Mike Di Iorio at Barclays Capital says the way the business has been run will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Trading in US equity markets is spread across 13 stock exchanges and 50 dark pools. A third of US volume occurs away from exchanges. Justin Schack at Rosenblatt Securities said that from 2008 through 2010, big banks expanded their dark pools by using them as the first destination to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William D. Cohan writes: We were either naive or stupid to believe Obama’s “change you can believe in” included Wall Street. Robert Rubin protegés were appointed to the three most important economic positions in Obama’s first term: Treasury secretary, national economic adviser, and director of the OMB. Other
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