Investment banking slowdown

business correspondent,London(wp/es):
A hiring slump at investment banks slowed UK recruitment activity at search firm Robert Walters in the final quarter, highlighting the ongoing shake-up of the banks as they try to reverse a slide in profits.
The recruiter, which makes a third of its fees in the UK, said a drop off in bank recruitment between the start of September and December 31 led to lower UK net fee income growth of 5% to £19.9 million from £19 million.
UK growth was 27% for the same period last year.
“We’ve been in this business for 30 years and every so often banks will hire and fire,” said chief executive Robert Walters, who founded the search firm.
“There’s always a mixed bag when you have a broad, diverse business and they are realigning what they want to be. That inevitably leads to redundancies and affects hiring trends.”

He added there was a “degree of pause” in hiring but expected it to get back to normal by 2017.
The bonfire of the bankers comes at a sensitive time for rainmakers ahead of this year’s bonus season, which coincides with annual results from lenders over the next few weeks.
Big European banks like Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Credit Suisse have laid off staff and stopped hiring in a bid to reshape their institutions in recent months to focus on more profitable areas.
Despite the problems, FTSE 250-listed Robert Walters reported a 10% rise in group net fee income for the period to £59.1 million on a constant currency basis.
Europe was the stand-out market – led by stronger productivity in France — with quarterly net fee income up 17% to £12.4 million. Asia Pacific was also up 11% to £24.3 million.

Walters said there were some brighter spots in financial services sector despite the bank problems.
“Insurance has been quite strong and we’ve seen decent trading in overall financial services over the past 12 months.
“We do normally have a quieter season in the fourth quarter and it has been exacerbated by what’s coming out of China,” he added.

Corbyn under pressure as shadow minister quits

political reporter,London(wp/es):
Jeremy Corbyn came under fresh attack today as a shadow cabinet minister quit over the “direction and internal conflict” of the Labour Party.
Catherine McKinnell said she was resigning as shadow attorney general with “a heavy heart” after losing faith in the “increasingly negative path” of the party.
The Newcastle North MP said she had been optimistic at first about the “new kind of politics” promised by Mr Corbyn and went on: “However, as events have unfolded over recent weeks, my concerns about the direction and internal conflict within the Labour Party have only grown and I fear this is taking us down an increasingly negative path.”
She is the fourth shadow minister to resign in the past week and to criticise direction under Mr Corbyn.
Two London MPs were tipped to replace her: Hammersmith’s Andy Slaughter and  former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer, MP for Holborn and St Pancras.

Mr Corbyn today gave his strongest signal yet that he could use a referendum of Labour members to push through a historic change of policy on the Trident nuclear deterrent.
In an interview that alarmed Labour modernisers, he said grassroots members would get a “big say” in whether to change the current policy that backs the renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons system.
 “Whether that comes as a vote of individual members or a vote of conference, that will be decided,” he said.

Two members of the shadow cabinet - Lord Falconer and Owen Smith - yesterday hinted they would quit if he reversed the current policy, while a third, Lucy Powell, predicted the big trade unions would block such a move as it would cost jobs.
He refused to rule out launching drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists in Syria or Iraq.
Labour’s leader said he would look at the “evidence” before deciding on any request for a strike from security officials if he was Prime Minister.