Posts by doubleup

The nation’s biggest banks are getting squeezed from almost every direction, quarterly reports show, from slumping mortgage demand to a sluggish economy and tumultuous bond markets. The result has been a lackluster third quarter for lenders from behemoths like J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.62% & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to regional banks such as PNC Financial Services…

Overall, bonuses on fixed-income, currency, and commodity trading desks will likely be down 10 percent to 15 percent, said Alan Johnson, head of the Wall Street compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. It could be the third or fourth year in a row in which some Wall Street bond traders get $0 bonus checks, he added. Just…

As reported yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, Daniel P. Stipano, deputy chief counsel, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, called on banks to tie compensation to compliance, and said, “If you don’t do that, you’re really just engaging in empty talk.” The reaction from some in the industry: where have you been for the…

Wall Street is highly profitable again, but cost-cutting and regulatory pressures should keep compensation totals from increasing at near the same rate. We talked to Alan Johnson, founder of compensation-consulting firm Johnson Associates Inc., to discuss the presumed winners and losers of 2013 and the potential impact of EU bonus on both sides of the pond.…

Consultant relations professionals are resisting calls to make their compensation more long term to align it with the duration of their clients’ investments, recruiters say, following recent European proposals along those lines that would have affected U.S. managers with E.U. arms. In July, the European Union rejected legislation that would have capped asset managers’ bonuses…

Wall Street may feel as if it’s suffering – coming under more intense scrutiny from regulators, and anxious about the impact of the Federal Reserve’s much-anticipated “tapering” of quantitative easing. Its most recent crop of earnings reports have suggested otherwise, though. The Street is doing quite nicely – and, according to a just-released survey from compensation consulting…

The discrepancies are the latest wrinkle in the final writing of the Volcker rule, which will force banks to scale back bets they make using their own capital. Banks know the broad outlines of the rule, but regulators may not issue a final version until later this year, leaving banks little time as they scramble…

The fortunes of large financial services companies have improved dramatically from the dark days of the recession, but paychecks for the leaders of those companies still aren’t what they used to be.  Compensation at broker-dealers and asset-management firms generally has increased along with the recovering financial markets during the past two years, but it remains substantially…

Wall Street bonuses and staff levels are expected to rise this year as trading and deal-making activity pick up, according to a closely watched report released on Friday by a compensation consulting firm.  Johnson Associates predicts that senior bank executives will receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent, with investment bankers getting the biggest…

Corporate governance experts believe Wal-Mart Stores’ recent decision to tie executive bonuses to compliance objectives could be a bellwether for how other large, multinational companies hold management accountable should their firms run afoul of certain regulations. The retail giant has undergone an overhaul of its compliance operations following a federal investigation into bribery allegations in…