Morning Coffee: HSBC held a townhall and was mocked by emojis. Bank CEO advises analyst earning $150k to live frugally

Townhalls in investment banks can be awkward events, particularly during periods of restructuring. Intended to imbue staff with the sweet sentiments of senior executives, they're often filled with the kind of corporate cant that breeds cynicism. Michael Roberts, the head of HSBC's corporate and investment bank, seems to have fallen foul of this trap.

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Bloomberg reports that Roberts ran a town hall for his people in June that went a bit wrong. HSBC is in the process of dismantling its investment bank in the UK and the US, where it's closing its M&A and equity capital markets businesses and chucking out staff. Despite this, 64-year-old Roberts - who is a Citi corporate banker by trade, reportedly declared at his June town hall that HSBC's investment bank had become the envy of Wall Street. 

Bankers aren't the sort who jeer and throw food, but there are other ways of indicating disagreement and disrespect. Bankers attending Roberts' event remotely reportedly began posting laughing face emojis, which lit up the screen for all to see. Roberts' aide tried turning them off, but it was too late. 

It's not the first time HSBC's had an awkward town hall this year. In April, we reported that Patrick George, HSBC's global head of markets and securities, was stymied by questions like: "How can HSBC retain talent when pay is not competitive." 

In the bold new world of managing up, such sedition presumably comes as a shock. HSBC executives may want to deliver pre-recorded pep instead talks in the future. 

Separately, Richard Handler, CEO of investment bank Jefferies, has once again been dispensing advice to junior bankers on his Instagram account.  

Writing in response to a first year analyst earning $150k with $60k of student debt, who wondered whether they were "ok", Handler said they were doing "great" and should "live frugally" with roommates and "no expensive non-necessities" to get their debt down. 

Frugal living is a central pillar of Handler's edifice. Answering another question on how to amass $1m, he said that what had worked for him was working on the "cost side." - "First save $1k, then $10k, then $100k," said Handler, who wrote in a separate post that he had never prioritized current income over an opportunity to grow. 

Handler is now worth circa $1bn, so he has been doing something right. 

Meanwhile....

A third of billionaires inherited much or all of their wealth. (WSJ) 

There is a fuss about the roof of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). LSEG has exclusive use of its roof, where it's installed radio equipment that offers for low latency connectivity to its own trading venue as well as ICE and Cboe Europe. Other entities must use neighbouring roofs and long cables to access the same things. They want to be on the roof too. The FCA is investigating. (Financial Times) 

Cantor wants to hire 25-50 people in the Middle East under Ali Khalpey, the head of its Middle East investment banking and capital markets business. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs is making a big push into private credit and has relocated Deb Dutt, one of its top private credit executives in its asset management arm, from London to the Gulf region. (Bloomberg) 

Hudson River Trading hired Anna Neumann-Regan, Citadel Securities’ chief operating officer for systematic equities and futures in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. (Financial News) 

Deutsche Bank has a new office at Moorgate in London, but it's also looking at a new office in Canary Wharf to replace the Canary Wharf office it already has at 10 Upper Bank Street. DB's new Canary Wharf office might be at the YY building that houses Revolut. (FT) 

Jonathan Kleisner, a former commodities trader, left Wall Street to become a paramedic aged 41. “Our bread and butter is big stuff. I’m talking amputations, people hit by trains, bodies in pieces. Catastrophic stuff.” (New York Times) 

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, a major thorn in President Trump’s side is an engineering whiz with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives on a farm in Garrison, Ky., where he grows peaches, raises chickens and powers his home partly with solar panels. He created a miniature debt clock that he and his friends on Capitol Hill wear on their lapels to highlight the dangers of the nation’s mounting debt. (WSJ) 

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