Morgan Stanley's bond-trading bonanza — Payments tech salaries — Fannie Mae shakeup

Happy Saturday!

Big bank earnings season was in full swing this week. From top execs laying out the rationale behind dealmaking to shedding light on their plans for the future of the physical office, here are some of this quarter's highlights:

• Morgan Stanley's CEO explains why the bank's $7 billion bid for Eaton Vance makes sense even with such a high price tag: 'I'm not ashamed to say it's fully priced'
• JPMorgan and BlackRock are both looking to do M&A. Their execs just gave a glance at what they could buy.
• 'Why not step aside now?' Analysts just grilled outgoing Citi CEO Mike Corbat over how he ran the bank and made comparisons to embattled Wells Fargo
• Here's what 7 CEOs of major financial firms are saying about the return to office and the future of their real estate footprints

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Keep reading to learn more about what engineers are getting paid at Amex, Mastercard, PayPal, Square, and Visa; a leadership shakeup at mortgage giant Fannie Mae; why big investors like Blackstone have been snapping up film and TV production space as a hot real-estate play; and a deep dive on how per-diem lawyers have found creative ways to reinvent themselves.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is shaking up leadership in its largest business

US government-controlled Fannie Mae, a key player in the country's massive mortgage market, is shuffling leadership in its largest business line, according to recent internal memos seen by Business Insider.

The changes inside Fannie Mae, which the government took over during the great financial crisis and has become a political football, come just weeks before the US presidential election.

You can read all the details on the shakeup here.

Big money is pouring into film and TV production spaces. Here's a look at the opportunities — and risks — for this hot real-estate play.

Brookfield Property Partners is in talks to take a stake in Blackhall Studios, a production facility with nine sound stages in Atlanta, sources told Business Insider.

Dan Geiger and Casey Sullivan chatted with studio owners, private-equity executives and brokers to learn what's been driving a flurry of activity from big investors.

A Morgan Stanley credit desk has reaped nearly $1 billion thanks to a surge in corporate borrowing and bond-portfolio trading

As Alex Morrell reported, Morgan Stanley has had a huge year in credit trading — reaping nearly $1 billion from its investment-grade desk.

Despite ranking fourth in underwriting IG debt, the firm is a perennial top competitor when it comes to trading it. Helping its cause: Morgan Stanley has one of Wall Street's top operations in algorithmic and bond portfolio trading, which has accelerated in 2020.

You can read all the details on the blowout performance here.

AT&T is putting WarnerMedia's huge NYC headquarters under review

AT&T is conducting a strategic review of WarnerMedia's 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters at 30 Hudson Yards, Dan Geiger reported this week.

The reevaluation is expected to be complete early next year and could prompt the $200 billion telecom company to shed some of the space.

Here's a look at what this reevaluation could mean for the NYC office market.

Here's what engineers are getting paid at Amex, Mastercard, PayPal, Square, and Visa

For any payments player, tech is a huge part of the budget. Speed and security of a network can make or break a company like Amex or Mastercard.

And that means a large part of payments companies' headcount lies in tech. Amex, Mastercard, PayPal, Square, and Visa need to hire the best technical talent to build new ways to pay and keep the systems up and running.

Here's a roundup of what they're paying.

Per-diem attorneys could make $200,000 a year from freelance lawyer gigs. But as work has vanished, they've become Instagram cooks, motivational speakers, and reiki coaches.

Hundreds of lawyers in New York and beyond who made a specialty out of showing up for court appearances on behalf of other lawyers have found themselves out of work as courts have moved online. So-called per-diem lawyers could make about $125 per appearance, and for some of them, the numbers really added up.

New York courts have gradually been reopening for in-person trials and arguments, but the events that filled a per-diem's day are mostly virtual, so the lawyers who used to send them work can call in themselves.

Jack Newsham took a look at how per-diem lawyers are reinventing themselves.

Goldman Sachs is planning to hire dozens of advisors for the firm's wealth business

In Goldman Sachs' quest to move down-market, part of its newly reorganized wealth management division is preparing to expand.

Joe Duran, head of Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management, told Rebecca Ungarino and Dakin Campbell that the business is looking to hire dozens of financial advisors over the next year.

Here's more on hiring plans, office expansions, and why the firm is so confident in its push.

Careers

• 32 books on everything from the roots of value investing to the science of sleep that Wall Street rising stars say you should read to get ahead
• Private-equity hiring is set to rebound in 2021, with firms looking to add investment pros to handle a jump in dealmaking

Private equity and hedge funds

• Good deals in pandemic-hit companies are proving hard to find. Here's how big investors that raised billions to pounce on corporate distress are changing up their playbooks.
• A portfolio manager at $20 billion Lone Pine says value investing is alive and well with a new class of company leading the way — and explains why hyper-growth firms like Facebook now fit the bill

Fintech

• The world's largest digital currency asset manager took in $1 billion in new investment in the third quarter. Here's why investors are feeling so bullish about bitcoin and ethereum.
• The pandemic has created a do-or-die moment for smaller banks. Here's how fintechs are playing a key role in these firms staying relevant.
• Cybersecurity startup deepwatch just nabbed a Goldman Sachs-led $53 million funding round. Here's how it's working with clients to keep their systems safe.

Legal

• Hundreds of test-takers weighed in on the virtual version of the New York bar exam and nearly 75% described the experience as negative. Here are all their complaints.
• These are 8 of the hottest Silicon Valley law firms to work at if you want to enter the booming tech market
• The bar exam as we know it is under fire. From ditching multiple choice to making the test open book, here's the changes legal experts are calling for.
• 'This is adapt or die time': Tech-savvy law firms make nearly 40% more in revenue than old-school ones — here's how new tools are helping lawyers get ahead

Real estate

• Advertising and PR giant Dentsu is the latest corporate tenant to cast off glitzy NYC offices as more companies rethink their footprints
• A Latin American short-term rental startup just raised $48 million in a Series A led by a16z. Here's the deck it uses to pitch institutional landlords it looks to partner with.
• Biotech and pharma companies are drawing in billions in funding. Here are 6 real estate markets to watch as the need for lab space booms.
• This real-estate influencer just closed on nearly $500 million in property deals with apartment developer LYND. Here's how it fits into a plan to create 100,000 millionaires of color by 2030.