Tariq Fancy was BlackRock’s sustainable investing CIO between 2018 and 2019, and had a unique vantage point into the world’s largest asset manager's approach to ESG investing.

However, he has gone on to become one of the ESG sector’s fiercest critics. Last month Fancy published an explosive three-part essay via online publishing platform Medium, in which he likened the booming sustainable investment sector to “selling the public a wheatgrass placebo as a solution to the onset of cancer.”

Financial...

Bad manners were commonplace among members of SoftBank’s London investment team when it engaged in talks with Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield over a potential investment, the digital banking entrepreneur alleged.

The Japanese mega investor’s London base, which is responsible for executing much of its Vision Fund cash in Europe, forced him to endure excessively long wait times in its lobby while displaying poor hygiene in investor meetings, Blomfield claimed in an 11 September blog post on his personal website.

SoftBank...

FTSE 100 fund management group abrdn has once again found itself on the receiving end of scrutiny over its recent rebrand, with respondents to an online poll calling it an “act of corporate insanity”.

According to a survey of 2,000 conducted by online comparison website Investing Reviews, abrdn was singled out as the worst investment brand in the UK. Respondents were asked to consider websites’ overall messaging, tone, imagery, strapline and the language used.

Around...

The head of a body representing junior lawyers has blasted City law firms for using high pay to justify staff working long hours during the M&A boom.

“Pay shouldn’t be used as an excuse by firms to say junior lawyers should work long hours because they are getting paid a lot of money,” Manda Banerji, chair of the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division told Financial News.

“It...

Goldman Sachs bolstered bonuses for its analysts, following a salary hike in August, making this year a bumper one for junior pay after complaints of brutal hours at the US bank sparked a burnout crisis and war for talent across the street.

Analysts at Goldman have received bonuses of between 100-110% of salary in 2021, according to people familiar with the matter, up from an average payout of 50-70% of base pay last year.

Goldman...

JPMorgan's sales and trading revenue will be down by 10% in the third quarter of 2021, while the investment banking fee boom is showing some signs of slowing down, according to Marianne Lake, its former chief financial officer.

Lake, who currently co-heads its consumer and community banking unit, signalled that the trading boom that supported large investment banks throughout the Covid-19 pandemic last year continues to slow. The bank will post a 10% decline on both the second quarter of 2021, and when compared to the third...

Those who thought the boom in non-fungible tokens was over might have to think again.

Sales of NFTs sprang back bigger than ever to reach record levels this month atan all-time daily high of $123m, according to NonFungible data, following a near four-month lull in demand.

Exactly what lies behind the turnaround is anyone’s guess, but one major...

City broker and small and mid-cap focused investment bank Peel Hunt intends to float on London’s AIM market after a bumper year when revenues more than doubled.

The firm, run by chief executive Stephen Fine, will list on the AIM market on 29 September, it said in a statement.

Like many City-focused brokers, the investment bank has enjoyed...

“I always chuckle when I’m referred to as a City grandee,” Lord Gerry Grimstone says.

But if anyone merits the title, it would surely be him. After starting off as a civil servant in the 1970s, he became a director at Schroders. He went on to chair not only one of the City’s biggest banks — Barclays — but also one of its biggest insurers — Standard Life — while also finding time to work as a non-executive director at Big Four auditor Deloitte and chair trade body TheCityUK along the way.

Since...

Goldman Sachs named the co-head of its global financing group as its new chief financial officer, as Stephen Scherr steps down after 30 years at the US banking giant.

Denis Coleman will take over as CFO in January next year, the bank said in a statement, in the latest senior change at Goldman, which has named new leaders of the majority of its main business units over the past year. He will move to deputy CFO until that time.

“Denis...

Tariq Fancy was BlackRock’s sustainable investing CIO between 2018 and 2019, and had a unique vantage point into the world’s largest asset manager's approach to ESG investing.

However, he has gone on to become one of the ESG sector’s fiercest critics. Last month Fancy published an explosive three-part essay via online publishing platform Medium, in which he likened the booming sustainable investment sector to “selling the public a wheatgrass placebo as a solution to the onset of cancer.”

Financial...

Bad manners were commonplace among members of SoftBank’s London investment team when it engaged in talks with Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield over a potential investment, the digital banking entrepreneur alleged.

The Japanese mega investor’s London base, which is responsible for executing much of its Vision Fund cash in Europe, forced him to endure excessively long wait times in its lobby while displaying poor hygiene in investor meetings, Blomfield claimed in an 11 September blog post on his personal website.

SoftBank...

FTSE 100 fund management group abrdn has once again found itself on the receiving end of scrutiny over its recent rebrand, with respondents to an online poll calling it an “act of corporate insanity”.

According to a survey of 2,000 conducted by online comparison website Investing Reviews, abrdn was singled out as the worst investment brand in the UK. Respondents were asked to consider websites’ overall messaging, tone, imagery, strapline and the language used.

Around...

The head of a body representing junior lawyers has blasted City law firms for using high pay to justify staff working long hours during the M&A boom.

“Pay shouldn’t be used as an excuse by firms to say junior lawyers should work long hours because they are getting paid a lot of money,” Manda Banerji, chair of the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division told Financial News.

“It...

Goldman Sachs bolstered bonuses for its analysts, following a salary hike in August, making this year a bumper one for junior pay after complaints of brutal hours at the US bank sparked a burnout crisis and war for talent across the street.

Analysts at Goldman have received bonuses of between 100-110% of salary in 2021, according to people familiar with the matter, up from an average payout of 50-70% of base pay last year.

Goldman...

JPMorgan's sales and trading revenue will be down by 10% in the third quarter of 2021, while the investment banking fee boom is showing some signs of slowing down, according to Marianne Lake, its former chief financial officer.

Lake, who currently co-heads its consumer and community banking unit, signalled that the trading boom that supported large investment banks throughout the Covid-19 pandemic last year continues to slow. The bank will post a 10% decline on both the second quarter of 2021, and when compared to the third...

Those who thought the boom in non-fungible tokens was over might have to think again.

Sales of NFTs sprang back bigger than ever to reach record levels this month atan all-time daily high of $123m, according to NonFungible data, following a near four-month lull in demand.

Exactly what lies behind the turnaround is anyone’s guess, but one major...

City broker and small and mid-cap focused investment bank Peel Hunt intends to float on London’s AIM market after a bumper year when revenues more than doubled.

The firm, run by chief executive Stephen Fine, will list on the AIM market on 29 September, it said in a statement.

Like many City-focused brokers, the investment bank has enjoyed...

“I always chuckle when I’m referred to as a City grandee,” Lord Gerry Grimstone says.

But if anyone merits the title, it would surely be him. After starting off as a civil servant in the 1970s, he became a director at Schroders. He went on to chair not only one of the City’s biggest banks — Barclays — but also one of its biggest insurers — Standard Life — while also finding time to work as a non-executive director at Big Four auditor Deloitte and chair trade body TheCityUK along the way.

Since...

Goldman Sachs named the co-head of its global financing group as its new chief financial officer, as Stephen Scherr steps down after 30 years at the US banking giant.

Denis Coleman will take over as CFO in January next year, the bank said in a statement, in the latest senior change at Goldman, which has named new leaders of the majority of its main business units over the past year. He will move to deputy CFO until that time.

“Denis...

A cross-party group of MPs has blasted the UK’s “Wild West” insolvency industry, which they say suffers from widespread structural failings, a weak regulatory regime, and pervasive conflicts of interests.

The all party parliamentary group on fair business banking criticised the close relationship between insolvency practitioners and the major banks, which it said often comes at the expense of the interest of other creditors.

“Conflicts...