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Barclays expands team: Tim Throsby, JPMorgan's global head of equities, is moving toBarclays as head of its corporate and international division and chief executive of its corporate and investment bank. He is the latest JPM executive to join CEO James E. Staley, himself a former JPM veteran, at the British bank. Previous JPMorgan hires include Paul Compton, who was named Barclays group chief operating officer in February, and CS Venkatakrishnan, Barclays' new chief risk officer. Throsby is expected to join Barclays early next year. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times
Wall Street Journal
PayPal-MasterCard deal: PayPal and MasterCard reached a deal that allows customers to use the digital payment network for purchases in stores. Under the agreement, users would be able to set PayPal as the default payment method on their credit or debit card. PayPal reached a similar deal with Visa earlier this year. "Customer choice and partnership are fundamental principles for PayPal," CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. "With each partnership agreement that we sign, we further expand the ubiquity and value of the PayPal brand and improve our own economics." PayPal is also working with banks on creating products that would promote PayPal as a payment method.
Survival of the hungrier: Money managers who come from poorer families outperform their more affluent colleagues by a wide margin, two percentage points annually, according to a study from professors at the University of Michigan and New South Wales, Australia. The reason? "We argue that managers born poor face higher entry barriers into asset management, and only the most skilled succeed," the study said. "Consistent with this view, managers born rich are more likely to be promoted, while those born poor are promoted only if they outperform."
Financial Times
Revenue drop: The combined revenues at the world's biggest investment banks dropped 15% in the first half of 2016, putting renewed pressure on them to boost returns to stockholders. Combined revenues from trading securities and advising companies fell to $79 billion in the first half, down from $93.3 billion in the comparable period of 2015. That is the steepest year-on-year decline since a 25% drop in 2010. "Investment banks are realizing there is no top-line relief, capital allocation from [parent companies] probably won't change much, and regulations won't change much. So improvement in returns becomes dependent on optimizing the cost base or grabbing market share," one analyst said.
The heat isn't off: While revenues are falling, the amount big banks have to pay in fines and penalties shows no signs of shrinking, either. In the first eight months of the year, the 10 biggest banks have already paid out nearly $10 billion in fines and settlements, almost matching the $10.4 billion paid out all of last year. Goldman Sachs leads the list with over $5 billion in fines this year, more than half of the total. While the good news is that those figures are down sharply from the peak years of 2014 and 2013, the bad news is that addition problems may lurk ahead. New regulations set to take effect in the European Union in 2018, for example, create "lot of fines potential" because of their complexity and reporting requirements, one consultant said.
New York Times
Mea culpa: Wells Fargo apologized for some print advertisements that seemed to suggest a career in science is better than being an artist. The ads, promoting a "teen financial education day" program, featured an image of a young woman with the headline: "A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today." Another one showed a young man with the headline: "An actor yesterday. A botanist today." A number of artists, including singer Josh Groban, took issue with that message and voiced their objections over social media. Wells then issued an apology on Twitter, saying the ads "were intended to celebrate all the aspirations of young people and fell short of that goal."
