識破遮羞布 清除濫竽充數的銀行家
Antony Jenkins’ efforts to change the culture of Barclays by cutting bankers’ pay? explain are on hold. At its investment bank, it is paying bonuses that are 13 per cent higher to “compete in the global market for talent”. The bank’s chief executive wants to reform the pay of US and Asian investment bankers but it is beyond his control.
安東尼•詹金斯(Antony Jenkins)試圖用降薪來改變巴克萊(Barclays)文化的努力被暫時擱置了。爲了“在全球市場爭奪人才”，巴克萊的投行部門將員工獎金提高了13%。該行的首席執行官想要改革美國和亞洲投資銀行家的薪酬，但那是他無法控制的。His problem – shared with the rest of an industry struggling to alter itsits behaviour – is that there is no such thing as a banker. There are equity brokers, foreign exchange traders, mortgage salespeople, corporate financiers and all kinds of specialists under one roof. butThere is no single set of employees unified by a professional culture and a willingness to pull together.
和其餘試圖改變該行業行爲的人一樣，詹金斯的問題在於他沒有意識到：不存在一種叫銀行家的人。我們有股票經紀人、外匯交易員、抵押貸款銷售人員、公司財務專員，以及各種處於同一屋檐下的專業人士。但沒有哪種職業文化和凝聚力可以將這麼多不同職業的僱員擰成一股繩。That spells trouble for banks such as Barclays or Deutsche Bank as they try to introduce “The Barclays Way” or Deutsche’s six new corporate values (“integrity”, “innovation”, “discipline” etc). Banks that werebanged together in a 20-year spree of mergers and leveraged risk-taking, while old skills were replaced by computers, have little culture left from which to rebuild.
這將給巴克萊和德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)帶來麻煩，因爲它們正試圖分別引入“巴克萊道路”和德銀6點新的企業價值觀（正直、創新、紀律等）。20年來，銀行通過不斷的合併和高槓杆的冒險活動，被生拼硬湊到一塊，期間又發生了計算機取代傳統技能的變革，因此，這些銀行並沒有留下多少可供重建的文化。
Richard Lambert, head of the UK’s Banking Standards Review (and a former editor of the Financial Times) is trying to fill this vacuum with a new body that would champion good behaviour and encourage bankers to become qualified professionals in the same way as doctors. Restraint must come from individuals, not just banks, he believes.
英國銀行業標準評估項目(Banking Standards Review)主管、英國《金融時報》前總編輯理查德•蘭伯特(Richard Lambert)正試圖通過一個新機構來填補這一真空，這個機構將倡導良好的職業行爲，鼓勵銀行家成爲和醫生一樣獲得資格認定的專業人士。他認爲，必須對個人加以約束，而不僅僅對銀行。I sympathise with Sir Richard, not least because he appointed me as the FT’s banking correspondent two decades ago, when Royal Bank of Scotland and others were starting their trek towards self-destruction, but he does not have much to work with. The classic “banker”, an experienced, judicious loan expert, is a mythical figure.
我很理解理查德爵士，其中一個相當重要的原因是他曾在20年前任命我爲英國《金融時報》銀行業記者，當時蘇格蘭皇家銀行(Royal Bank of Scotland)和其他銀行正開始自我毀滅的緩慢進程。然而，他並沒有多少工作可做。典型的“銀行家”——一名富有經驗、具有明智判斷力的貸款專家——是個不存在的角色。The best chance, maybe the only one, lies in organisations that are coherent enough for “culture” to have a meaning beyond bland statements of aspiration. That was true of the old Barclays – a patrician family-run bank – and is still true of a few banks, notably Goldman Sachs. Whether or not the culture is salutary, it exists.
最好的機會（也許是唯一的機會）存在於那些凝聚力足夠強的銀行，強到“文化”對它們而言具有實際意義，而不是蒼白的口號。曾經的巴克萊銀行的確是這樣（這是一家由貴族家庭經營的銀行），現在只有少數幾家銀行能做到，其中比較突出的是高盛(Goldman Sachs)。不論高盛的文化是否是好的文化，它如今至少還在。Goldman has grown rapidly but without merging with a commercial bank or losing its identity (its biggest deal was taking over J Aron, the commodity broker that employed Lloyd Blankfein, its chief executive, and several other senior partners). Its 450 partners remain a cohesive group in spite of the strains provoked by a shift towards trading.
高盛的成長速度很快，但它從未與一家商業銀行合併，也沒有喪失對自己身份的認識（其最大一筆併購是收購商品經紀公司J Aron，它的僱員有後來成爲高盛首席執行官的勞爾德•貝蘭克梵(Lloyd Blankfein)和其他幾名高級合夥人）。儘管業務向交易傾斜引發了一些緊張關係，但高盛的450名合夥人一直是個團結緊密的整體。It was tarnished by how it behaved in the subprime mortgage crisis, and the jury is out on its ambition to be less avaricious and nicer to its customers, but Goldman is at least in control of itself. It cut bonuses after a fall in revenues for 2013, limiting them to 37 per cent of incomeso not just in line?. When Mr Jenkins tried to pull the pay lever, aiming for a similar result, it stuck.
高盛在次貸危機中的表現給它的名譽帶來了損失；它是否打算不再這麼貪婪，並對顧客好一點，目前還不得而知，但它至少在控制自己。在2013年收入下滑之後，高盛削減了獎金，其佔公司收入的比重被限制在37%。而當詹金斯試圖對薪酬動刀，以期取得類似效果時，卻受阻了。This is hardly surprising, given how Barclays pulverised its old culture over two decades, as it grew in investment banking. “There was no sense of common purpose in a group that had grown and diversified . . . there were no clearly articulated and understood shared values,” according to the Salz review of the bank’s business practices.
考慮一下巴克萊在發展投行業務的20多年裏是如何將其舊有文化徹底毀滅的，就不會對此感到意外。薩爾斯(Salz)就巴克萊的商業行爲所做的報告指出：“在一個業已成熟和多元化的團隊裏，找不到共同的使命感…沒有被明確表述和理解的共同價值觀。”Barclays is an amalgam of everything from a UK high street bank; to de Zoete & Bevan and Wedd Durlacher, the pre-Big Bang stock broker and jobber; to most of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank. It would be amazing if a branch banker in Liverpool had fellow feeling for a debt trader in Singapore.
巴克萊進行了一大堆收購——從收購英國高街的一家銀行，到在英國放鬆金融管制前收購股票經紀商de Zoete & Bevan和Wedd Durlacher，再到收購華爾街投行雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)的多數業務。要是利物浦某家支行的員工能與一名新加坡的債券交易員產生同事之情，那纔怪呢。This does not make Barclays unusual; in fact, it is a run-of-the-mill creation of the long boom, like RBS (National Westminster, ABN Amro), Deutsche (Morgan Grenfell, Bankers Trust) or JPMorgan Chase (Bank One, Chemical Bank [WE SEEM TO SAY CHEMICAL BANK MORE OFTEN?], Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Cazenove & Co etc). All kinds of professions and cultures were thrown together.
但巴克萊並不因此而顯得不尋常。事實上，它是經濟長期繁榮所帶來的再普通不過的產物，就像蘇格蘭皇家銀行（收購了國民西敏寺銀行(National Westminster)及荷蘭銀行(ABN Amro)）、德意志銀行（收購了摩根建富(Morgan Grenfell)、信孚銀行(Bankers Trust)），或是摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)（併購了美國第一銀行(Bank One)、化學銀行(Chemical Bank)、貝爾斯登(Bear Stearns)、華盛頓互惠銀行(Washington Mutual)和證券公司Cazenove & Co等）。對於它們來說，所有的職業劃分和文化都被一股腦拋棄了。Meanwhile, technology undermined the retail banking profession by allowing banks to replace individual judgment with credit scoring. The branch banker was turned into an overeager salesperson of mortgages and insurance policies, many of which were mis-sold. UK banks have paid £20bn in redress for mis-selling of payment protection insurance and other abuses since 2011).
同時，技術逐漸破壞了零售銀行這種職業，個人判斷被評級打分所替代。支行員工變成了心急如焚地推銷抵押貸款和保單的人，而這些產品有很多都被不當銷售給客戶。2011年以來，英國各家銀行因爲不當銷售支付保護保險及其他不當行爲，已賠付了200億英鎊。One way to solve this behavioural disaster – an option favoured by Sir Richard and others – is to encourage bankers to take professional exams and rebuild their sense of pride and identity. Bad bankers might be struck off by professional bodies, like bad doctors or lawyers lose licences. It was once common for British bankers to be qualified but only a small fraction is now.
解決這場行爲災難的辦法之一（這也是理查德爵士和其他人贊成的一個選擇）是鼓勵銀行家參加專業考試，恢復自豪感及身份認同。濫竽充數的銀行家可以被專業機構除名，就像差勁的醫生和律師被剝奪行業執照。資質認定曾在英國銀行家中很普遍，但如今已是鳳毛麟角。Greater professional pride would not hurt but I doubt it is the answer. Financial analysts already study for qualifications, and that did not prevent problems in the past. Nor is the deskilling of retail banks likely to be reversed, creating a fresh need for traditional bankers – if anything, more work is likely to be done by machines.
更強的職業自豪感不會有壞處，但我對這種辦法表示懷疑。金融分析師們已經在爲獲取資格認證進行學習，但這並沒有阻止過去的問題發生。零售銀行去技能化的趨勢也不太可能被逆轉，因此也不太可能出現對傳統銀行家的新的需求。要說可能的情況，那就是更多的工作將被機器完成。Ultimately, banks will have to tighten their discipline or create the cultures they lack. The former is a lot simpler than the latter. A bank with a coherent identity and strong leadership can tell its managers to alter course. “We had sessions where we told everyone, ‘Things that were OK then are not OK now’,” says one banking executive.
銀行最終還是要加強紀律，或創造出它們所缺少的文化。前者比後者要簡單得多。具有一貫認同感和強有力領導的銀行可以告訴其管理者調整路線。一家銀行的高管說：“我們曾開會告訴每個人，‘過去OK的事，現在已經不OK’了。”If the bank is in effect starting from scratch, having mislaid its original culture and instead amassed a mish-mash of financial specialists with conflicting skills and attitudes, it is another matter. Mr Jenkins is trying very hard to pull off what may be an impossible task.
如果銀行已經遺失了原有文化，聚集了各種亂七八糟的金融專家，而他們的經驗和態度彼此衝突，因此銀行實際上是從零開始建設文化，那便是另一回事了。詹金斯試圖費力完成的或許是一項不可能的任務。
