Morning Coffee: Secret life of the 46 year-old "banker." Goldman has some explaining to do
When is a banker not a banker? How about when he's a former project manager turned, "head of tax transparent fund implementation," at a major global custodian who has time for some serious hobbies on the side?
This is the case with 46 year-old James Hillery, the celebrated "banker" on the popular UK TV show, The Great British Bake off.
Alongside his senior "tax implementation" day job at Northern Trust in London, Hillery has time to participate in Bake Off, to write and maintain a beautifully presented food blog, management an allotment, walk the dog and feed his chickens. He describes himself as a "serial hobbyist" and posts regular photos of food he's made to his Twitter account even on weekdays. Other bankers working 100 hour weeks may well look on in envy.
Of course, Hillery isn't really a banker. He's a former project manager in a senior regulatory role at a custody firm. He does, however, work in finance and he demonstrates that some jobs in the industry aren't all-consuming and do allow for a very fulsome life on the side. Despite the career misnomer he may also be a good ambassador for "bankers", who are still vilified by a large proportion of the British public for causing the financial crisis.
Separately, Goldman Sachs is having to explain itself. Reuters reports that Goldman is going to be detailing precisely how it plans to turn around its fixed income trading business at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in September. The unprecedented explanation follows a 40% fall in Goldman's fixed income trading revenues in the second quarter and some unsatisfactory responses to investors' questions from new CFO Marty Chavez. The explanation will be delivered by former CFO, Harvey Schwartz.
Meanwhile:
Goldman Sachs still wants to be number one in Asian ECM even though it only ranked 15th last year. It has to aspire: the Chinese market is huge. (Financial Times)
VTB Group hired Ronan Connolly, the former head of equities trading at Nomura, as its global head of equities. (Financial News)
Bankers at Ireland's bailed-out banks currently have their salaries limited to €500k ($598k) and are banned from receiving bonuses. This may change now that the Irish economy's booming again. (Bloomberg)
BAML bankers with deferred stock bonuses can thank Warren Buffett. (Business Insider)
World's new richest man sells women's clothes. (Business Insider)
Neither Citi nor Chase has lent to Trump since the mid-1990s. Deutsche Bank, however, always comes through. (Financial Times)
Coffee cravings ruin your memory and metacognition. (British Psychological Society Digest)
I failed to prevent my kid going to college. (James Altucher)
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