Editor's Take: Time to get paid like a retail banker? - eFinancialCareers

Summary:
Sarah Butcher on why extravagant salaries for investment bankers may stay down, even when trade picks up again. Reasons for this are new regulations that are almost certainly on their way (central bank support for brokers will come at a cost); shareholder pressure (from individual investors as well as sovereign wealth funds) and an increasing number of clients disputing the exorbitant fees charged by investment banks. (Published: 10/06/08)


Notes:

• Investment bankers are paid generously because they make big money for their employers
• in 2006 profits per head in investment banking were 26 times higher than in the average industry, according to McKinsey
• profits now on a downwards trajectory
• pay will fall in 2008
• question is when it will bounce back up
• CEBR: big bonuses will be back in 2011
• but: there are signs that a deeper structural shift is taking place
• 3 bad omens:
1. Regulation
• Fed support for brokerage houses will come at a cost
• Tim Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
• quoted in the Financial Times complaining that the Fed’s responsibility for financial stability is unmatched by its authority
• "The gap needs to be closed."
• Regulation will almost certainly involve
  
• increased capital requirements
  
• lower leverage,
  
• possibly limits on overnight repo funding
  
• higher capital charges against assets held in trading books
• When good times return, banks will therefore be less able to exploit new opportunities.
  
• Trading profits will be lower as a result.
2. Shareholder power
• investment banks have long traded at low multiples due to uncertainty over the source of their success
• clear now that those multiples are justified (profits now ephemeral)
• extravagant pay in boom years is looking increasingly foolish
• Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)
  
• could also help suppress frothy bonuses
• will exert an influence behind the scenes
• Brad Hintz: “Sovereign funds are going to go directly to management and ask what’s being done to clean balance sheets, cut expenses and lower headcount.”
3. Fee disputes
• Client mutterings about exorbitant advisory fees are turning into full-scale complaints
• e.g. Bradford & Bingley rights issue debacle
  
• has helped focus minds on whether underwriting fees are justified
• In Asia, where M&A activity is still expanding, a high proportion of companies use their in-house advisors to save cash
• "Investment bankers could soon join their retail banking colleagues in pocketing bonuses that are fractions rather than multiples of salary - and in driving Mondeos rather than Maseratis."

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Exxon Rejects Proposals Backed by Rockefellers - NYTimes.com

Summary:
Report of a "robust debate" among shareholders at an Exxon Mobil annual meeting concerning the company's policy toward renewable energy and global warming. A significant portion wants the company to invest more profits in alternative sources of energy. This appears to be a case of shareholders calling for more Corporate Social Responsibility, at the expense of profitability. Shareholders putting pressure on world's largest independent oil company to invest in renewable energy. (Published: 29/05/08)


Notes:

• "The vote was announced after a robust debate among shareholders, those who defended management as a great engine for profits and those who argued that a narrow focus on developing oil and gas as energy sources would threaten the global environment and ultimately the company's financial health."
• "Exxon Mobil is acting like a dinosaur, not adopting to a changing environment" - New York shareholder
• "We're faced with a profound moral and business challenge" - New Jersey shareholder
• Exxon's CEO, Rex Tillerson: "We're focused on safely and reliably meeting the growing energy demand while working to reduce our impact on the environment. [...] A lot of climate policy is still up for debate. [...] Society must be realistic about the economic impact of policies aimed at curbing the burning of fossil fuels. [...] Exxon has to keep focused on its mission of developing more oil and gas reserves [...] Oil and gas will remain the primary fuel source for decades to come. [...] But ... Exxon Mobil will be at the forefront of technological change in producing alternative energy sources."
• While Exxon has invested more in renewable fuel research [under Tillerson, as compared to under Lee Raymond], it is far less public about those policies than major rivals like BP, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell.
• Calls for role of CEO and Chairman to be separated
• Peter O'Neill (Rockefeller descendant and PE investor): an independent board led by a chairman who was not chief executive would help the company "keep an open mind" and "take long-term steps" not only to work for a cleaner environment but also to take important risks to find more oil reserves.
• Rockerfeller family members: company needs to show more leadership in developing alternative fuel sources that will combat global warming
• Others backed and have co-sponsored three other resolutions that Exxon study the impact of global warming on poor countries, reduce company emissions of greenhouse gases and do more research on renewable energy sources like wind turbines and solar panels.
• Neva Rockefeller Goodwin: "These increased concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause weather disasters that will work against everyone's best hope for robust development in emerging countries while also increasing the vulnerability of the poor in the rich countries. It will also impact the global economy."
• Under Exxon rules, proxy resolutions are non-binding unless they have the support of the board. But company executives say they must take the opinions of shareholders seriously, especially when they represent a majority of votes taken.
  

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