Happy Halloween! It’s Dan DeFrancesco checking in from NYC. I’m dressing up as the spookiest thing of all: client outflows.
Today we’ll find out why fintechs should have more than one bank relationship, break down the best way to get a new, higher-paying job at your old employer, and take a peek inside one of the swankiest NYC office buildings.
But first, the new lenders are here.
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Everyone wants in on the debt game.
Samantha Lee/Business Insider
1. Everybody wants to be a lender these days
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but a Wall Street firm wants to invest in debt.
Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, the $14 billion family-office-turned-hedge fund is building out a new group focused on credit within its macro trading business, Insider reports.
The group will be run by former Anchorage Capital Group trader Andrew Silverman, and its part of the Schonfeld’s bigger plans to grow into a multi-manager hedge fund powerhouse, Insider’s Alyson Velati reports.
If you’ve been paying attention to the newsletter (and shame on you if you haven’t), Schonfeld’s move shouldn’t be too surprising. Seemingly everyone on the Street wants to get in on some type of debt investing, whether it be the trading of it (in Schonfeld’s case) or via private credit like BlackRock, Owl Rock, and Blackstone.
And it makes sense! Interest rates are high and market volatility has banks skittish, which means people are looking for alternative avenues to borrow money.
Finance firms are happy to oblige because credit is complicated and complicated is good.
A general rule on Wall Street is that firms like to build businesses around complex things. A simple process means it is easily repeatable by someone else, which means more competition, which means smaller margins, which means less profit.
But something complex — like credit, per say — provides plenty of intricacies and nuance.
Firms can roll out a bunch of fancy people with fancy degrees that use fancy words to prove how sophisticated what they are doing is. And while it might seem confusing, it really boils down to being able to charge a lot more money for their services.
Sure, that might be a cynical take. But it’s not that wrong! Finance firms thrive on making it seem like they can offer you something no one else can.
In other news:
Crystal Cox/Insider
2. Fintechs should play the field. That’s the sentiment from one industry insider when it comes to startups’ partnerships with banks. Here’s why it’s smart to have more than one.
3. So, about that whole “Great Resignation” thing… If you’re looking to get back in the good graces of your old employer, we’ve got some tips on how you can get a job there again.
4. One of the biggest players in the cannabis industry is making a push to get into the US via a complex deal. In the type of transaction that is probably catnip for M&A bankers and attorneys, Canadian weed giant Canopy Growth is acquiring a handful of US cannabis businesses in a deal that allows them to own, but not control, them. We’ve got on the details on how it’s structured and why it may, or may not, work.
5. No more Sunday Scaries and a nice payout. The top Twitter executives who got the axe from Elon Musk stand to make $88 million in payouts. (Where do I sign up for that type of exit strategy?) Here’s who is getting paid and how big their golden parachutes are.
6. It’s been a tumultuous year for adtech, which typically makes for great M&A opportunities. We mapped out 9 European digital-marketing companies that experts say could be on the market. Check them out here.
7. Does PE have too many seats at the table? The Justice Department is investigating Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, KKR, and other private-equity firms over whether the number of board seats they hold across various companies could go against antitrust laws, Bloomberg reports.
8. Wall Street’s top cop is getting paid. The SEC issued $2.2 billion in fines on public companies, including 13 fines larger than $100 million, during its 2022 fiscal year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
9. We get it, you don’t want to come into the office. But you still probably want to check out Manhattan’s most expensive office building. Take a look at all the cool amenities inside One Vanderbilt.
10. And if you do happen to be working from home, get in the spirit with these 13 horror movies you can stream. Does ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas” count as a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? (It’s not on the list, but it’s on Disney+.) Either way, check out the full list here.
Keep updated with the latest business news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief. Listen here.
Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.