The Giant Schism in Asset Management Paychecks

Experts see a small pay cut coming for executives at traditional asset managers, hedge funds, and private equity shops, particularly at smaller firms, given disruption in the underlying economy because of the coronavirus. The predicted five-to-10 percent compensation drop would make for two down years in a row, according to Johnson Associates’ third-quarter report on…

Read More

Fired Bankers’ Job Prospects Fade With Firms Under Pressure to Cut Costs

“Financial services and banking has too many people,” said Alan Johnson, the head of compensation-consulting firm Johnson Associates Inc., who predicts the industry’s headcount will shrink 10% by mid-2021 from its level as the pandemic began. “Next year is going to be very low hiring. There’ll be some layoffs.” One silver lining for job hunters…

Read More

Banks Warn Bonuses Will Not Keep Pace with Profits

“This is the first time since the financial crisis that we’ve had such a dramatic difference between parts of the big banks,” said Alan Johnson, founder of New York-based pay consultancy Johnson & Associates, referring to the gulf in the performance of the banks’ retail business and their advisory and trading divisions… Johnson said issues…

Read More

Hartford to Offer Buyouts, Cut Hundreds of Staffers

Hartford anticipated about $70 million in severance costs in the third quarter, according to its second-quarter results. “They’re probably looking at getting whole head count down 10% or 12%” through both buyouts and layoffs, says Alan Johnson, president of compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates… The fact that the pandemic now appears likely to stretch well…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

Asset Managers to Shrink Bonuses, Slash Jobs Despite Market Recovery: Report

“It is going to be a disappointing year,” says Alan Johnson, managing principal at compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. And lower comp isn’t the concern for industry workers. “Headcount is going to be a big issue in the industry,” Johnson adds. Effective remote work not only came as a surprise to asset manager business leaders,…

Read More