If you want to know a firm's priorities, follow the money.
HSBC is sinking money into emerging markets like China, India and Brazil while paring back its expenses in Britain, the Financial Times reports. For example, the top 200 staff in the U.K. got $1.2 million in compensation in 2011, compared to $2.3 million for the top 200 overseas.
HSBC, which released annual results for 2011 yesterday, spent $1.1 billion hiring staff in "key emerging regions," boosting salaries by 10% to 15% and bumping up overall expenses at the bank.
"This is something we have to deal with," said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver. "The important positive is the significant profit growth in these areas." In other words, expect the increased focus -- and attendant pay jumps -- to continue in the near future.
Gulliver took home a 6.6 million pound pay package for the year. HSBC is in the process of shedding 30,000 jobs around the globe, while hiring 3,000 to 5,000 a year over the next few years in emerging markets.
Intriguing money transfers keep popping up from the final days of MF Global. Here's the goods on the latest.
From Sell Side to Buy Side (Bloomberg)
A team of traders at UBS is leaving to form their own hedge fund, following in the footsteps of many proprietary traders who are setting up their own shops.
Carting It Home (Deal Journal)
Don't pity KKR co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts. They each brought home $94 million in 2011.
The Return of Suspenders (Law Blog)
Eat your vegetables and don't do any insider trading, or else Gordon Gekko will come for you in the night.
Tying an executive's yearly compensation to the company's debt, instead of just its stock, would be a better model of corporate governance, one professor argues.
Seth Waugh, Deutsche Bank's head of North America, is leaving the firm after 11 years to spend more time with his family.
Buzz Around the Office
Zzzz (YouTube)
Sleep, hummingbird, sleep.
List of the Day: Taking Credit
If you don't want others to steal your ideas and present them as their own, follow these tips.
1. Present your ideas in a big forum where it's clear you're the sole author.
2. Be overprepared so even if your work is combined with that of others, you can offer additional tidbits in a meeting.
3. Accept you don't always need to take the credit for every single thing when you're part of a team.
(Source: The Daily Muse)
- Bull/Bear Report - Hirings, firings, rising stars and downward spiral of the finance job market
- Get the job: From writing resumes to negotiating the offer, all the tools to land the perfect finance job
- Morning Coffee: Sign up for the latest in finance career news
- FINS.com: Finance jobs, research and career news by FINS from The Wall Street Journal