Reply to: RBS Chairman: banker pay is too high

[bobspud]

Those NY banks must be so naive, no-body will ever know.

Indefensible shameless shysters in my eyes, off course if I was hanging on to their coat tails I might well post a sycophantic rant just like bobspud.

Come the revolution...

Actually I haven't worked in banking since 2001 I did have previous heavy IB experience in the 90's though.
The other point that it's worth mentioning is that when I left the church of endless money, I got a raise of 20k because the consultancy firm that took me said we need to pay better than the banks if we want to attract the best in the field.

So many of the rates in London are pinned to try and have a chance to compete with banks or get close. If the IB's managed the market for a java solution architect down to 300 per day from the 900 it currently is, do you think the rest of the market would still be paying 650 - 700?

For the record I blame the FSA and credit junkies for this mess. The banks just did what they were allowed to do in a competitive market. If the FSA spent more time constraining the markets and regulating the banks, then perhaps RBS would be in a better state, having been blocked from buying a crock of tulipe.

Personally I support high IB pay rates and long may my own rate be pinned to be competitive with them.

[gingerjedi]

Those NY banks must be so naive, no-body will ever know.

Indefensible shameless shysters in my eyes, off course if I was hanging on to their coat tails I might well post a sycophantic rant just like bobspud.

Come the revolution...

[AtW]

No it's about arbitrage. Price in London moves but NY doesn't respond yet.

So what really stops NY from trading 24/7? One would have thought that they can find enough bankers to do overnight shift for extra dosh?

The real answer I think is that in USA they ask more hard questions about where the money came from than from the UK which is why lots of companies from errr, rather dodgy background IPOed on LSE rather than on NYSE.

Read this:

BBC - Peston's Picks: Lehman: How $50bn was buried in London

"The examiner says that the so-called "Repo 105" programme that allowed Lehman to hide that $50bn of assets was not permitted by any US law firm.

So Lehman obtained an "opinion letter" from Linklaters in London that said the relevant deals were permissible under English law - and the relevant transactions that hid the assets were then conducted through Lehman's London operations.

There's no suggestion that this was illegal or in breach of any rules."

In the meantime my sister could not open bank account in a UK bank despite me willing to vouch for her because of money laundering laws - easily fakeable "proof of address" would have solved it so no real criminals are ever deterred.

[Troll]

This ones a direct route rather than via Ireland

Hibernia Atlantic Plans Fastest New-York-to-London Fiber-Optic Connection | The Web Host Industry Review

Oh that's interesting - I lost a shed load of cash investing in the last Level 3 / Global Crossing fiber laying frenzy of the early 2000's - didn't realise they were planning on laying more routes!

[bobspud]

Ohh from the same article (they also plan a branch cable up to Iceland)

This ones a direct route rather than via Ireland

Hibernia Atlantic Plans Fastest New-York-to-London Fiber-Optic Connection | The Web Host Industry Review

[Troll]

Ohh from the same article (they also plan a branch cable up to Iceland)

While the offshore high performance computing market is relatively immature, major US and international companies are already looking at locating their data centers in Iceland to take advantage of the readily available, 100% green and renewable, energy and also utilising Iceland’s ambient temperatures to provide free cooling. By routing the transatlantic cable from New York to Ireland, and including the branch link into Iceland, the Group enables the link to a secure, premium environment, powered by renewable energy sources, in a cost efficient manner.

[Troll]

In an industry that is about to sink a new fibre optic cable into the Atlantic because it will net the users a few hundredths of a second latency advantage the costs of a few employees netting 10's of millions is **** all..

If that is the Emerald Networks that plans to lands in Eire & provide faster access between NY & London
How would landing in Eire help - surely there would be latency overheads in the route NY>subsea>Eire>subsea>Holyhead> London
versus
NY>subsea> Cornwall >London

[bobspud]

That is actually very cheap compared with labour costs in banks.

One would imagine that they'd move closer to source to cut down on latency even more - perhaps they can't find good bankers in New York?

No it's about arbitrage. Price in London moves but NY doesn't respond yet. So with high speed trading you can buy something here and sell it there and guarantee the profit.

The other trick is inserting trades between other trades.

Check out: low latency trading...

Thanks to the FSA perfectly legal.

If a bank wants to use english staff to trade us markets they will wave enough cash at them to get them on a plane.

[AtW]

In an industry that is about to sink a new fibre optic cable into the Atlantic because it will net the users a few hundredths of a second latency advantage the costs of a few employees netting 10's of millions is **** all.

That is actually very cheap compared with labour costs in banks.

One would imagine that they'd move closer to source to cut down on latency even more - perhaps they can't find good bankers in New York?

[bobspud]

tl;dr

Yeah 'cause it's so hard to gamble with other peoples' money at no risk to oneself, and be paid a huge bonus regardless of whether your company makes a profit or a loss!

Of course we really need these "masters of the universe". Who else could run up such huge losses requiring £billions of taxpayers money to bail them out?

I feel sorry for you. You've obviously swallowed the masters-of-the-universe/too big to fail/need-to-pay-megabucks-to-get-the-best-people bulltulip hook, line and sinker.

Face it: even the chairman of RBS has said that bankers pay is too high, and yet you go on trying to defend the indefenceable! Are you on commission or something?

In an industry that is about to sink a new fibre optic cable into the Atlantic because it will net the users a few hundredths of a second latency advantage the costs of a few employees netting 10's of millions is **** all. What the RBS chief says and what he does is another matter.

If you think that in an industry thats based on throwing money at a problem just to get rid of it is going to engage in a race to the bottom competition just to make a few paupers like you feel happier you are a bigger twat than you appear (which must be ginormous)

The bail out was a choice. The government didn't have to fund it. They could have just let the whole thing collapse.
Something would of risen out of the chaos. But it wouldn't be your savings. Meanwhile in the quarters following the chaos most of the banks posted massive increases in their profits due to increased market turnover...

Back in the 90's one of the exchanges spent 2 million on a tricked out e10k to process trades. It payed for itself in under 10 minutes. Are you starting to get a handle on the figures yet? I doubt it.

I don't get this mentality that people need others to be poorer or fail just to make themselves feel better. I am happy when I hear that someones doing better than me. I think: Great that's the guy that will be specing up my next Mercedes or Range Rover, because I am sure as he'll not going to spend 100k buying one new. So someone needs to earn the enough surplus cash to make a 70k loss on a car in 3 years...

Now sod off back to stacking shelves or whatever permie job you have.

[TimberWolf]

The Bible may be wrong about a few things, e.g. that Jesus was the son of God and that God exists, but was spot on about bankers. It is the devil's work.

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[AtW]

I can only conclude that banks don't want to bother themselves with lending money anymore, I was under the impression they were bailed out to keep the financial wheels turning.

I'd expect 30% APR from shops because they need to add their margin on top of their outsourced card providers who give money to people who might not be able to obtain credit from banks.

[gingerjedi]

I inquired about a short term loan form my bank (NatWest) and was offered 17.9% APR even though I have a maximum 999 point credit rating.

M&S (a bloody shop by all accounts) can do the same loan for 6% APR, I wonder what their bosses get paid?

I can only conclude that banks don't want to bother themselves with lending money anymore, I was under the impression they were bailed out to keep the financial wheels turning.

[AtW]

If you worked in a cake shop you'd help yourself to the cream, especially if no-one ever asked you to stop.

That's not a problem - cost of cream is very low and you can't eat that much, same as in chocolate factory they'd let new employees have enough candies in first few days so that they hate the stuff.

Now awarding yourself real cash bonuses on top of massive salaries when shareholders get a finger is totally different, one would have thought in such labour intensive businesses share prices would drop to the floor, guess there are way why they ain't:

Goldman Sachs Spent More on 2011 Stock Buybacks Than It Earned - Bloomberg

"The company spent $6.04 billion to repurchase 47 million shares at an average price of $128.33, more than its $4.44 billion in net income, the New York-based bank said today. It also paid $1.93 billion in preferred stock dividends during the year, including $1.64 billion to redeem an investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. "