Morning Coffee: Bank of America's new MDs look strange compared to Citi's. Banking's best junior recruitment program has gone
Bank of America has promoted some new managing directors (MDs). It has not been lavish in handing about the new titles, unless you are working in technology.
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Reuters notes that Bank of America has doubled the number of new MDs in its technology team to 40 this year, up from just 17 last year. By comparison, Reuters notes that Bank of America's overall MD class is up by only 2% to 394 people. The remainder include 44 new MDs in banking, 48 new MDs in global markets, and nine new MDs in research.
BofA therefore nearly has many new MDs in technology as it does in banking.
Things were a bit different when Citi promoted its own 2025 MDs a few weeks ago. At Citi, the number of new technology MDs was halved to only 15 people.
If you're a senior technologist now, you might therefore conclude that you're better off working at Bank of America than Citi. BofA is spending $13bn on technology and assigning $4bn of that to new technologies like AI. Citi spent $9bn in 2024 and has had a major focus on updating inadequate legacy systems. Maybe Citi can't afford lots of new, highly paid humans? Maybe Citi could promote some agentic AIs instead?
Separately, the Financial Times reports that HSBC has cut its 160-year-old "International Managers" recruitment program that gave 21-year-olds tax-free salaries, a housing allowance, and a generous pension.
The FT quotes an HSBC brochure from 15 years ago, which said the program was open to graduates with "the talent and ambition to reach the highest levels of international banking.” However, there are suggestions that the program was redolent of Imperial ambitions and mostly populated by boys from mid-ranking public schools who like playing rugby.
Meanwhile...
Ron Kahn, a Princeton- and Harvard-trained physicist at BlackRock, has developed a “thematic robot to decide which stocks to buy and sell. He says the ideal investor is psychic. “There are a few humans who have the ability to really see the future...There’s always going to be a role for people like that. I just don’t think there are very many people like that.” (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are jointly financing Paramount's bid for Warner Brothers. This is unusual. (Financial Times)
London hedge fund Ilex Partners launched in 2023. Now it employs 42 people and has five investment groups. (Bloomberg)
Sackville Capital, a London family office that focuses on private markets and manages money for Saudi billionaires, lost Benson Li, its chief investment officer. (Bloomberg)
30% of Deutsche Bank's loans, advances and debt securities are tied to investment firms, funds, insurance companies, pension funds, clearing houses and other financial intermediaries. It's only 8% among Europe’s other largest banks. (Financial Times)
Todd Combs, the 54-year-old ex-Warren Buffet protégé who'll be managing JPMorgan's new $10bn American investment fund graduated from a state university in Tallahassee and first worked for a car insurer. He impressed Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger by spending hours a day reading about particular topics. (Financial Times)
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