Will negative public opinion against 'finance' affect future financial careers?

[Kavita]

There is a rising public sentiment against 'the finance sector' (although I doubt if the public at large really knows what constitutes finance). The current Occupy wall street is case in point. As somebody preparing for a career in finance, the questions on my mind are:

1) How will this negative public sentiment affect finance careers 5-10 years down the line?

2) How likely is it for the lawmakers to pass legislations capping salaries/bonuses for quants/traders?

Please share your insights.

 

[MRoss]

Lol!

1) What do you think? Will people still want to make money?

2) Ridiculous! Although, Obama might decided to raise the tax rate to 80% for salaries over what he deems comfortable.

 

[bob]

My $0.02:
(1) Negative public sentiment is affecting finance careers right now. Dodd-Frank, UCITS IV, Basel III are regulatory efforts whose particular nature and form are very much driven by the ongoing credit crisis and the perceived breach of public trust it represents on the part of basically all market actors, including regulators. These changes are placing constraints on the ways banks work and are requiring additional forms of disclosure for asset managers generally, including hedge funds. Just to mention one instance, this reaction to the crisis will in a matter of a few years change the way markets in some of the most commonly traded derivatives work at a fundamental level.

(2) In the US, regulation in the area of compensation will be fairly light, amounting to encouragement of deferred compensation and clawback positions for those at the highest levels of the largest banks. Otherwise, in the US the comp side will, I think, be business as usual; there's a real reluctance here for the government to interfere with such matters. It should also be pointed out, though, that there's a reasonable chance that banks will have less money to throw around generally.

 

[MSFHQ]

Please show me time when bankers or financiers were ever liked. This is a political ploy which will end sooner, rather than later.