UBS Cuts Out Credit Suisse

Yeesh!

More than half! One way to think about the financial-services business is that many jobs involve some combination of marketing and execution. If you are a mergers-and-acquisitions banker, part of your job is to advise companies on mergers, structure and negotiate deals, etc.; another part of your job is going around to companies and pitching them on why they should hire you, rather than another bank, to advise them on their mergers. In much of finance these two roles are combined in one job: The banker who leads the M&A pitch is also the banker who will lead the deal team; the bond salesperson who takes you out for drinks also fills your bond order; the private wealth manager who cold-calls you and asks to manage your money also picks investments for you. What banks are selling is expertise and relationships, and it’s harder to sell expertise and relationships if you’re not the expert who will have the relationship. But they are different parts of the job, and the bank needs to hire enough people to do both.