While Goldman Sachs is said to be renewing its annual cull of underperforming dealmakers, at Credit Suisse the debate is whether or not to spin off or downsize the investment bank, as various media outlets, including finews.com, have reported recently.

These moves and discussions are taking place in a very difficult environment, particularly for dealmakers, as the war in Ukraine, rampant inflation and the end of easy money take their toll. That is prompting Goldman Sachs to once again implement an annual job-cutting effort that could affect hundreds of staff. At Credit Suisse, media reports have put the number of job cuts into the thousands. 

JPMorgan Enters Debate

Daniel Pinto, president and head of the corporate and investment bank at JPMorgan is taking a different tack. To be sure, the current environment is challenging, but «you need to be very careful when you have a bit of a downturn, to start cutting bankers here and there because you hurt the possibility for growth going forward,» he cautioned. 

Should bankers become available, that presents an opportunity as Pinto sees it. «If anything in an environment like this, there may be some very, very top bankers that you could not access or hire in the past and now they're available to be hired,» he said according to the «FT».

In response, he said JPMorgan will adjust to what it sees as the best size and structure needed and then «cater to that wallet size,» he said, referring to fee income.

Retaining Talent

Talent availability raises another interesting point. At a townhall meeting last week, Credit Suisse is said to have raised the idea of an equity stake in the firm to retain top bankers, as reported by «Bloomberg».

After having lost over 60 senior investment bankers in two years despite awarding $1.3 billion in retention bonuses and awards to stem the exodus, the idea is that offering the bankers a direct stake in the unit will keep them in place.

Credit Suisse's Swiss investment bank is doing just fine, and despite the aforementioned rumors of a sale or spinoff, Credit Suisse's investment banking unit still has the biggest wallet in Switzerland, as finews.com reported. 

Through the first half of the year, Credit Suisse maintained its leadership position in Switzerland's investment banking market, capturing 14.2 percent of the banking fee pool, or «wallet». That is nearly twice the size of  JPMorgan's wallet in Switzerland of 7.2 percent, according to figures provided by Credit Suisse at a media roundtable last Friday. 

With the prospect of more bankers becoming available, might Credit Suisse and JPMorgan open their wallets to grab new talent to generate more «wallet»?