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Wall Street bonuses are set to soar
Wall Street workers who trade stocks or derivatives linked to equity markets may see annual bonuses surge as much as 20% as market volatility picks up and more startups head to the public markets to sell shares, according to a new report.
People who work in sales and trading, regardless of their product area, are in line for a strong year, compensation consultant Johnson Associates said in its second-quarter report. At this rate, equities personnel will see incentive compensation climb 15% to 20% compared to last year, while fixed income sales and trading staff will likely see a 5% to 10% increase, the report said.
The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is building an 'ecosystem' for crypto
ICE, the parent company of the iconic New York Stock Exchange, is making a big move into the crypto market with a digital asset platform.
The firm, which previously dove into the market for digital assets via a data feed product earlier this year, had reportedly been exploring a cryptocurrency exchange platform. On Friday, the company officially announced it had been developing out such an offering.
ICE is teaming up with Microsoft to build out Bakkt, a new company that will serve as a "ecosystem for digital assets," including bitcoin.
The platform would allow folks to buy and sell digital assets.
Barclays has the fastest growing stock trading team around
The hottest stock-trading team on the planet in 2018 isn't one of Wall Street's giants from the United States.
Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs may dominate the equities industry in terms of raw market share, but British lender Barclays has the fastest-growing operation in the business so far this year.
The bank reported stellar second quarter earnings results Thursday, and its equities business was a key reason why, growing to $807 million from $588 million in 2017 - a 37% increase.
No other major bank's stock-trading team grew faster in the second quarter.
Professional investors say Lazard should consider breaking itself up
Boutique investment bank Lazard has a 170-year history of providing expert financial advice to clients.
But according to the results of an industry survey, many professional investors think the bank should consider a shift in its own strategy to boost shareholder returns.
The anonymous survey was carried out by Devin Ryan at JMP Securities, who said he received more than 50 formal responses from various hedge funds and mutual funds.
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