Wells Fargo Targeting Up to 25% of Workforce in Mass Layoffs

Alan Johnson, managing director of New York-based compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc., said that Wells Fargo’s announced cost-cutting plan will hurt the firm from a recruitment perspective, including in asset management. “It’s not just the cost cutting, but years of instability at the bank,” since the 2016 sales scandal surfaced, he said. “It’s just one…

Even Wall Street’s Biggest Bonuses Will Disappoint This Year

Equities traders at major U.S. banks largely succeeded in navigating the most tumultuous markets in a generation as the pandemic triggered lockdowns in March and sent stocks swooning, only to later rebound. But that performance was soon overshadowed by fixed-income trading. Federal Reserve intervention in credit markets helped banks arrange a slew of fundraisings for…

Bond Trading Seen as Bonus Bright Spot While Others Disappoint

“You’ll hear about some multimillion-dollar trader that got some multimillion-dollar increase in pay while you got less pay,” Alan Johnson, president and founder of Johnson Associates, said in an interview. “You’re not going to be able to make everybody happy and, unfortunately, this year you’re going to make many people unhappy. There are limited funds…

Layoffs, Shrunken Bonuses Coming in Asset Management

The largest private equity funds have enormous amounts of cash to invest, but face portfolio company defaults. Alan Johnson, head of the compensation and consulting firm, said PE outfits benefit from leverage when markets are up. “Now they’re on the other side of leverage and it hurts,” Johnson told Institutional Investor. “I won’t have a…

Asset Managers Are Prepping Layoffs and Slashed Bonuses as the Pandemic Pressures the Already-squeezed Industry. Here Are the Jobs Most at Risk

Managing director Alan Johnson said employees on the support and operations side of the business, like those involved in processing and lower-level technology functions, will likely be most vulnerable. The dim projections underscore how asset managers are under pressure as they navigate falling fees for products and thinning profit margins in a highly uncertain economic…

Another Down Year Seen for Manager Bonuses

“It’s not just where the markets are, it’s the fees you collect,” said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, in a phone interview. “We have these systemic changes within the market. We’ve moved from active to passive; we’ve moved to ETFs.” Mr. Johnson added that the decline is only “moderately worse” than estimates made…