If you're looking to Asia for opportunities in finance, best skip Tokyo. Daiwa Securities Group and Mizuho Financial Group, both Japanese financial firms, will jointly cut 500 positions, the firms said this week.
Daiwa will shed 200 positions while Mizuho will cut 300 jobs at its brokerage unit. Both firms have reported poor profits, with Daiwa reporting its fourth straight quarterly loss and Mizuho reporting an 80% decline in third-quarter profit. Samsung Securities Co. in South Korea also plans job cuts, according to Bloomberg.
The culprit in Japan's sagging optimism is the same as on Wall Street. Firms are suffering from Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Declining profits rooted in Greece's inability to pay its debts has forced global financial institutions to cut more than 230,000 jobs in the last year.
The cuts in Japan and South Korea could portend a lackluster job market in Asia generally. Let's hope China, too, doesn't catch a cold from crisis in otherwise sunny Greece.
The guy who succeeded Michael Roseman as MF Global's chief risk officer plans to tell Congress that he, too, warned chief Jon Corzine about those nasty European trades. Michael Stockman is due to testify Thursday before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
Jon Corzine has put his $2.9 million Hoboken, N.J. pad on the market. Maybe MF Global's missing $1.2 billion is hiding in a closet.
David Meets Goliath (DealBook)
In the long run, smaller banks may emerge victorious over their bigger counterparts.
Living the Life (Mergers & Inquisitions)
If you're starting your own hedge fund, you better be prepared. Not just for hopefully stellar performance fees, but for the actual, you know, work involved.
Many firms still practice forced ranking, so don't be surprised if you're assigned a number one day. Just try to stay out of the bottom 10%, which some financial institutions traditionally cull.
Off With Their Knighthoods (The Telegraph)
Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has lost his knighthood as a result of severely messing up the bank. Sure, we can pretend that actions like this are going to fix the fundamental problems with banking.
Bonus Deliberations (Financial News)
Read as Sherlock and Watson puzzle their way through the latest round of bonus discussions.
If you're guilty of any of these blunders, you probably won't get too many job offers.
State of the Union (Right Management)
A new survey finds that nearly half of workers believe their job is unrewarding and "saps their energy." If you find yourself in that group, it may be time for a change. If not a job relocation, at least an attitude adjustment.
Buzz Around the Office
Brand Impressions (YouTube)
A 5-year-old describes an array of brandmarks, from the Apple logo to the Starbucks logo to Bank of America logo.
List of the Day: Increasing Your Visibility
Keep these in mind when doing your networking.
1. Join professional association committees and attend industry conferences.
2. Don't arrange informational interviews using your work email.
3. Create a research project and use it as an excuse to call up the leaders in your industry.
(Source: Glassdoor.com)
- Bull/Bear Report - Hirings, firings, rising stars and downward spiral of the finance job market
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- FINS.com: Finance jobs, research and career news by FINS from The Wall Street Journal