Setting the Agenda for the City +5Pt
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Online edition 20 July 2020 Setting the agenda for the City +5pt +10 pt +15 pt £9.50 | €11 20 July 2020 Issue 1200 Barry Norris: What No virus vaccine until Will investment banks’ led me to short late 2021, top health trading gold rush collapsed Wirecard execs tell Lazard anger the politicians? Page 4 Page 5 Page 12 Setting the agenda for the City Swiss boss: Only three Don’t trim 650 trading day top bankers Senior Shruti Tripathi Chopra investment bankers Opposition to ambitious plans to slash market hours is mounting, after the boss of a leading European exchange rejected claims that a shorter trading day can boost diver- are Black sity and work-life balance. Jos Dijsselhof, chief execu- tive of Zurich-based Six Exchange Less than 0.5% of senior dealmakers in the City are — Europe’s third largest stock Black, data compiled for FN reveal. By Paul Clarke exchange by revenues, told Finan- cial News that trimming stock market Just three out of more than 650 BAME professionals are well-repre- hours will not help attract women senior investment bankers in Lon- sented, the number of Black deal- to what has historically been a don are Black, Financial News can makers at the top is so low,” said one. male-dominated profession. reveal, laying bare the finance sec- Mike Corbat, chief executive of “To me shortening trading hours tor’s poor track record on racial Citigroup, said the lack of role mod- is more treating the symptom and diversity within its upper ranks. els is a key problem. not the cause,” Dijsselhof said. “You Out of London’s top 11 invest- “Black talent wants to see other just need to make sure you have a ment banks, only Bank of America Black talent,” he said at Citi’s Emea diverse labour force and enough and Deutsche Bank have Black senior media summit on 2 July. “They want women in your business. What the executives leading their City deal- to know that in the firms they are trading hours are will not make a making units, according to exclu- working in that they are treated fairly big difference.” sive analysis of the top echelons of and equally. That they have mentors, Dijsselhof’s views are in stark finance giants in the City by specialist and people to look up to. contrast to results of a consultation headhunters for FN. “In many ways, bringing people by the London Stock Exchange, pub- The number of senior Black in is the easy part. And the real chal- dealmakers, who make up less than lenge is around retention and how Continued on page 2 0.5% of those heading up investment we manage people’s careers.” banking teams in London, contrasts The data included the leaders with a 13% proportion once Asian of banks’ European arms, and the and other minority ethnic groups are heads of M&A, equity and debt cap- included to make up the BAME cate- ital markets, leveraged finance and Car perk will gory, the data showed. financial sponsors in the region, as The numbers came from top well as the managing directors that banking headhunters who declined lead coverage of specific industries drive spike to be named because of client sensi- from London. tivity. They spoke of the enormous The banks included in the sam- in pollution lack of Black role models in the ple were Bank of America, Barclays, upper ranks of the sector. “It’s a poor BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Lucy McNulty reflection on the banks that while Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley Pollution levels in London’s finan- and UBS, as well as a handful of top cial districts are set to spike as the boutique advisers. All banks were world’s biggest finance firms offer contacted for comment. car perks to workers to commute to Inside The most high-profile Black the office amid the coronavirus cri- executive in the list was Bernard sis, according to the government’s Mensah, who leads Bank of Ameri- ‘clean air’ tsar and the Square Mile’s ca’s business in Europe, the Middle governing body. East and Africa. Meanwhile, others Professor Martin Williams, one include Sambacor N’Diaye, head of of the UK’s ‘clean air champions’, corporate equity solutions for Emea told Financial News that a growing at Bank of America and Deutsche reliance on cars and taxis among Bank’s head of leveraged finance for City workers during the pandemic Emea, Hoby Buvat. would be a “double whammy” for Quant managers routed Racial diversity has been thrust London’s air quality and congestion at troubled Bridgewater into the spotlight following the Black in the capital. Page 7 Lives Matter movement that swept Pollution levels had been across the world in the wake of the “steadily increasing” in the Canary HSBC’s Pulse takes a pause death of George Floyd at police 650 Wharf area since the beginning of hands in the US. Senior financial ser- 3 July, added the head of science policy Page 11 vices executives have come out in Black senior Senior at Imperial College London. EU judges give banks a support, with many promising to do “The more vehicles you have on more to tackle racial diversity. investment bankers investment bankers the road, the more congestion you data-sharing headache Page 19 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 2 News 20 July 2020 Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 No need to trim Pollution spike trading hours from car perk lished in June, which found that a have and the more [traffic- related majority of UK investors want to cut pollutant] Nitrogen Dioxide gener- the trading day by 90 minutes. ated,” he said. However, the LSE also said that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson any changes to stock market hours said last week that from 1 August the would need to be “broadly aligned” country’s home-workers can return to European exchanges. The LSE to their offices, if their employers is awaiting responses from other decide that they should and that it European bourses before it makes is safe to do so. This formed part of any changes. government efforts to help city-cen- The decision to slash trading tre economies recover from the hours rests with stock exchanges. Covid-19 crisis. European trading hours are the Williams’ comments were longest in the world, starting at 8am echoed by the City of London Cor- and ending at 4.30pm. Plans to trim poration, the local body that runs the trading day may never come to the Square Mile. Alastair Moss, the fruition if there is a lack of harmon- chair of the Corporation’s plan- isation between the LSE and other ning and transportation commit- European exchanges. tee, said “increased use of cars and “I have a couple of simple rules taxis” in the City “would lead to of business, and one of them is ‘if it’s increased congestion, air pollution not broken, don’t try to fix it’,” the and road danger”. Swiss Stock Exchange boss added. “I Banking giants in London are don’t see anything broken in the cur- reimbursing car costs in order to rent trading hours. So I would sup- address staff fears over the possible port keeping it ‘as is’.” risk of contagion on public transport. The Federation of European Canary Wharf-based Morgan Securities Exchanges, a lobby group Stanley offers staff free parking that represents 36 stock exchanges in spaces and permission to expense Europe including Six Exchange, said Ubers and parking fees during the earlier this month that shortening pandemic. At Goldman Sachs, based the trading day “would be a move in in the City, one trader said London the wrong direction and detrimental staff are allowed to expense cars to to European markets”. get to work. Meanwhile at Barclays FESE added that the move would certain staff are also offered a cov- have “no impact on employee well- Getty Images eted parking space in Canary Wharf, being”, because some trading ven- an employee told FN. ues, such as OTC markets, already Continued from page 1 the sector in 1996 and experienced sub-Saharan Africa region from Lon- An increasing number of firms operate outside of normal stock first-hand both unconscious and don, while Bank of America also has have either partially reopened their exchange hours. conscious bias, I am very sad that Yvonne Ike as head of sub-Saharan offices, or are planning to allow lim- Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, Only three the diversity dial has failed to shift in Africa and Natalie Mordi Hillaert as ited numbers of staff back in phases the Spanish stock market operator the financial sector,” said Gina Miller, head of Emea ESG capital markets. in the coming weeks. that was acquired by Six last month, Black bankers a prominent City campaigner and At UBS, the vice chair of DCM, Vinod Taxi companies are already said that “the negative impact on the co-founder of SCM Direct, the bou- Vasan, is Black. seeing a rush in demand from City interplay of markets and the econ- in top City jobs tique asset manager. Miller grew up “You just need to walk around workers. Uber has seen a more than omy in Europe has been left aside in Guyana and was named the UK’s the Square Mile to see the demo- 250% spike in business from corpo- in this debate”. However, when FN asked top most influential Black person in 2017 graphics, but no one seems to ques- rate accounts since early March.