JPMorgan’s investment banking analysts are now largely back in the office. But when that wasn’t the case and they complained about attempts to monitor their diligence at home, they found a way around the bank’s surveillance systems: mouse pushers.
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Mouse jigglers were first reported to JPMorgan in the summer of 2022 and were seen as a way to circumvent JPMorgan’s “Workplace Activity Data Utility” (“WADU”) data collection system. Two years later, Bloomberg reports that similar shakeups resulted in the firing of more than a dozen people at Wells Fargo. A regulatory filing says the fired individuals at Wells Fargo “were terminated following a review of allegations relating to the simulation of keyboard activity giving the appearance of active work.”
It’s possible that the mouse jigglers used by Wells Fargo’s bankers weren’t the best. Several threads on Reddit suggest that some jigglers are less detectable than the rest, although all are detectable if an employer also asks for occasional automated screenshots of the work you do. Some people suggest that the best way to simulate actual work is to attach the dial of a mouse to a watch so that it moves when you move your hand.
The Financial Times reports that most of the Wells Fargo employees fired for using the devices were juniors, although one had been at the bank for seven years, making them likely a vice president who should have known better. The bank said it “holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior.”
Wells Fargo has been relatively lenient with remote working, requiring juniors in the office only three days a week. It might think about this now that it knows juniors have played with its systems.
In addition, Balyasny’s British company was accused of contributing to a $100 million loss last year. Newly released accounts for the year to December 2023 show profits at the hedge fund’s UK entity (Balynasy Asset Management UK) made a profit of £5m, up from £26m the year before. The money available for distribution between Balyasny’s partners decreased by the same amount. Financial News notes that staff at Balyasny International Asset Management, another UK subsidiary, fell from 266 to 219 people over the year.
In the meantime….
Aaron Weiner, who is leaving Coatue, has received support from Millennium to join his own fund. (Bloomberg)
Marshall Wace and Capula are considering expanding to Abu Dhabi. (Bloomberg)
Robert Tau, an experienced macro fixed income trader for Balyasny in Asia, joins Millennium with his team. (Business Insider)
Citadel Securities has hired three UK rate traders and five salespeople in London, in addition to the four euro rate traders and two salespeople in Paris. Paris is the European tariff trading center. (Bloomberg)
Jain Global has an office in Singapore with room for 40 people and has plans for a similar size office in Hong Kong. (Bloomberg)
Sri Shivananda, JPMorgan’s new company-wide CTO who joined from PayPal, actually has an AI background. Shivananda led the rollout of several new AI tools at PayPal, including one that predicts how customers will want to check out. (Business Insider)
Elizabeth Warren is proposing a bill that would say private equity executives who “loot” healthcare companies like hospitals and nursing homes could face six years in prison if their plunder results in the death of a patient. (Quartz)
Revolut is moving to a new building in Canary Wharf as it plans a 40% increase in staff. (Finextra)
Former Credit Suisse banker Caroline Waddington is the CFO of St James’s Place. (Bloomberg)
The $4 trillion U.S. leveraged finance market now consists of junk bonds, leveraged loans and assets managed by private credit companies, in roughly equal proportions. But the golden age of private credit may be coming to an end. (Economist)
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