Morning Coffee: Deutsche Bank says it wasn't paying enough to attract good people. Charge $2k an hour, work 17 hour days
Deutsche Bank does not pay its special people badly. It has increased bonuses for its material risk takers (MRTs) by 60% in two years, such that last year they each received €1.8m ($2.1m). But pay is a relative issue and while Deutsche Bank's MRTs might be cool with their compensation, the people overseeing them have not been so fresh.
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Deutsche Bank explained yesterday that it has increased pay for its supervisory board members because it was being too cheap to attract able people. In a media release on the topic, Deutsche declared that the compensation it had been offering was “no longer competitive in attracting and retaining highly qualified supervisory board members.” It has therefore increased regular pay for supervisory board members by 17% to €350k and pay for its deputy chairman by 16% to €550k.
This is not bad, considering that supervisory board is part-time affair, but Deutsche notes that sitting on its board involves "demanding and multifaceted requirements" in a "complex regulatory environment."
This may not be the last time that Deutsche Bank has to hike pay. Its previous paucity reportedly became apparent only when Deutsche Bank tried to find some new people board members, only to find that no one good wanted to do it.
Given the choice, Deutsche Bank would have increased pay even more heftily. Last December it was reportedly making moves to hike compensation for chair Alexander Wynaendts by more than 40%. Yesterday, it revealed that Wynaendts received a mere 21% pay rise, to $1.4m. Wynaendts already earns more than any other chairperson at Germany’s blue-chip Dax companies.
Separately, if you want to work all day and all night while charging thousands of dollars an hour, law is the career for you.
The Financial Times reports that Alberto Safra, son of deceased billionaire banker Joseph Safra, was charged $35m by lawyers working on a dispute involving his dead father's estate.
The $35m bill was reportedly the result of senior lawyers at US firm WilmerHale charging themselves out at up to $2.1k an hour and working 12-17 hour days. On one day alone, they charged $162k. $11k business class flights and hotels were also bundled in.
The London high court has granted Alberto a review of the fees. This should be welcome to other clients of US lawyers. Safra engaged his expensive lawyers in 2022. The going rate has reportedly since increased to $3k an hour.
Meanwhile...
After the tenuous ceasefire, the short squeeze. John Flood, Goldman’s head of Americas equities execution services and partner declared: “This is the offramp the market has been waiting for...“Asset managers and sovereign wealth funds have remained on the sidelines since the start of the war. This likely encourages them to start playing offense again.” (Bloomberg)
The Wells Fargo employee who was supposed to receive $175m for blowing the whistle on fake accounts being set up to meet sales targets will now only receive $53m. (Financial Times)
Nick Rodolakis left Jefferies and joined NatWest as head of funds and sponsor coverage within its corporate and institutional division. (Financial News)
Wells Fargo hired Neil Ghosh from Truist as head of chemicals investment banking. (Bloomberg)
Bank of Nova Scotia hired Chris Adams from RBC for utilities banking. (Bloomberg)
Bank of America is closing its Elma operations centre and 170 people there will lose their jobs. (Yahoo)
A tech company took 120 employees to a tropical offsite in Honduras and it resulted in intestinal issues, a rodent like porcupine in a shower and crawling along the beach in 100 degrees. (WSJ)
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