Go figure. As American banks lay off, their neighbors to the north are hiring. Canadian banks, which brought on bankers laid off by the 2008 financial crisis, have accelerated staffing plans this year to capitalize on Wall Street's woes. Acording to the gurus at the Wall Street Journal the investment banking arms of the Big Five--Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce --plan hires for M&A, advisory, underwriting and other investment banking work, according to recruiters, analysts and bank representatives.
"Canadian firms are no longer looking at themselves as being a little firm north of the border," said Bill Vlaad, the founder of Vlaad and Co., a Toronto capital markets recruiter. "They have a defined presence in the U.S., and they're willing to look for good talent." Vlaad said his firm has had more phone calls in the second quarter asking for U.S. professionals than in the previous seven quarters combined.
One reason for the hiring: Canadian banks emerged from the debt crisis in better shape than American banks. They took on less risk and were subject to tighter regulations. The Canadian government required banks to meet a leverage test that maintained the ratio of total assets to total capital at 20 to 1. Many American banks, on the other hand, had been levered 30 to 1, or in the case of Merrill Lynch, 40 to 1, as a result of a 2004 Securities and Exchange Commission rule that allowed banks to more than double their leverage ratios….
Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110721-713597.html
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