How a weekend changed life for Merrill staffers
After the overnight transaction between BOA and Merrill Lynch, fate of employees working in management team of Merrill Lynch,Mumbai, hinged on developments in US.
By Prashant Mahesh, ET Bureau |
MUMBAI: For Ashish (name changed), a wealth manager with Merrill Lynch, all was well at the workplace last Friday, when he logged out for the weekend.
But the sense of well being was shattered on Monday morning when while driving to work, a colleague called him to inform him that his company had been sold to Bank of America.
It took him a few minutes to take in the enormity of the swift developments, which will have a deep impact on the professional lives of Ashish and hundreds of his colleagues at Merrill Lynch that is considered as one of the bulge-bracket financial services firms of the world. Merrill Lynch employs over 500 professionals in India.
���Overnight, the transaction happened between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Our fate hinges on the developments in the US and I am clueless about my immediate future,��� says an employee who works in the wealth management team at
Merrill Lynch in Mumbai.
���Indian banks refuse to deal with me today. I am finding it difficult to liquidate my positions today,��� says a desperate bond dealer with Merrill Lynch, India. He fears he will lose his clients soon. What does he do in such a situation?
As the news broke out, employees in various departments at Merrill can hardly focus on their work, knowing that their life will not be the same again. Clearly, most employees ET spoke to had hardly any clue about how the latest developments would pan out and the view that the new owners, Bank of America, would take on the operations of Merrill Lynch in India.
It was but natural that on Monday many of the relationship managers and a lot of the sales force, skipped their usual round of meeting with clients.
���How do I reassure my client that I am going to be servicing him, tomorrow when I am so uncertain myself,��� says a hapless relationship manager. ���Most of my clients are asking me the same question. Will you continue to handle my portfolio or leave.���
���Despite having met my targets, I have to live in an uncertain environment, thanks to the happenings in the US,��� says the relationship manager at Merrill Lynch.
What has compounded their woes is the fact that changing jobs looks difficult in local markets, given the slowdown in activity. With investment banking, institutional broking and wealth management seeing a downturn due to the markets, jobs in these areas are tough to come by, since there is hardly any firm hiring.
But the sense of well being was shattered on Monday morning when while driving to work, a colleague called him to inform him that his company had been sold to Bank of America.
It took him a few minutes to take in the enormity of the swift developments, which will have a deep impact on the professional lives of Ashish and hundreds of his colleagues at Merrill Lynch that is considered as one of the bulge-bracket financial services firms of the world. Merrill Lynch employs over 500 professionals in India.
���Overnight, the transaction happened between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Our fate hinges on the developments in the US and I am clueless about my immediate future,��� says an employee who works in the wealth management team at
Merrill Lynch in Mumbai.
���Indian banks refuse to deal with me today. I am finding it difficult to liquidate my positions today,��� says a desperate bond dealer with Merrill Lynch, India. He fears he will lose his clients soon. What does he do in such a situation?
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While he attempts to regain his focus and tries to carry out a trade, another colleague tells him that veteran Andrew Holland, who was in the equities team, has put in his papers and that part of his team was headed for Ambit Capital. As the news broke out, employees in various departments at Merrill can hardly focus on their work, knowing that their life will not be the same again. Clearly, most employees ET spoke to had hardly any clue about how the latest developments would pan out and the view that the new owners, Bank of America, would take on the operations of Merrill Lynch in India.
It was but natural that on Monday many of the relationship managers and a lot of the sales force, skipped their usual round of meeting with clients.
���How do I reassure my client that I am going to be servicing him, tomorrow when I am so uncertain myself,��� says a hapless relationship manager. ���Most of my clients are asking me the same question. Will you continue to handle my portfolio or leave.���
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In fact, the first question which foreign bank relationship managers have to face from clients is how stable their bank is to which none of them have an answer. ���Despite having met my targets, I have to live in an uncertain environment, thanks to the happenings in the US,��� says the relationship manager at Merrill Lynch.
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���Today, clients are more worried dealing with foreign banks than Indian banks,��� says another employee working with ABN Amro, which was taken over recently by Royal Bank of Scotland. What has compounded their woes is the fact that changing jobs looks difficult in local markets, given the slowdown in activity. With investment banking, institutional broking and wealth management seeing a downturn due to the markets, jobs in these areas are tough to come by, since there is hardly any firm hiring.
While a lot of it is evident at Merrill Lynch, India, today, signs of pain amongst employees in foreign banks have been visible for some time now. A lot of banks decided to go slow on the asset side of the business, leading to transfer of people across departments. This has left employees a bit baffled, though the consoling fact for them is that there are no job cuts.
In case of one foreign bank, which went slow on its asset business, frontline sales staff were told to move to collection. ���Essentially, this is a shift from the front office to the back office, which disturbs my career,��� says one helpless employee.
Another foreign bank, which started operations in India less than two years ago and has spent huge sums in hiring personnel, is suddenly on a cost-cutting spree. It plans to shift its back office from Worli (south Mumbai) to Goregaon in suburban Mumbai.
With the broking business going slow, an Indian broking firm backed by a bank, shifted a few staffers to the branches, where it plans to expand aggressively. Clearly, the going is uncertain and the next few months are going to be a testing time for a lot of bank employees as global events unfold in the near term.
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