Lehman Brothers:An Overview

The Lehman brothers is a 150 year old company went through a metamorphosis in 1993 after American Express divested Shearson and the independent firm came to be known as Lehman Brothers. Thus Lehman Brothers proclaims 1993 as its year of birth.Its area of working is categorical and is pivoted at investment banking with some focus on equity and fixed income.Its clientele spreads across the world. Though centered mainly in U.S., their clientage in Europe and Asia(10%) is significantly higher than their adversaries. Its headquarters are in New York,London and Tokyo.They serve the financial needs of various corporates, municipalities and other government institutions too.
They have partitioned their working into 2 parts:
-front office and
-mid office
Front office work can be further severed into the following sections:investment banking, salesdesk, equity and fixed income.In mid-office,that is effectively their back end,there are four main divisions:- Risk management,Operations,Finance and Information Technology. Their main stress was on the Risk management position during their presentation.
Before stressing on the desired job profile there was a statistical capitulation of their increasing capital and revenue.Upto the 3rd quarter their revenue has gone upto $8.7 million from $0.1million(when they started in 1993) which they claim to be a record in their history and expect a even higher return in the 4th quarter.
Marked accentuation was given to the gross increase in number of employees (about 43%) due to their recent acquisitions like Neuberger Berman in 2003 while other companies are cutting down their staff.Their felicity due to the Neuberger Berman acquisiton was obvious considering the significnt increase in their assets under management because of it.
Before explaining the role of a credit risk manangent research analyst, they categorized risk into four classes:
-Credit Risk
-Market
-Lquidity
-Operational
Credit risk presents the possibility the the party may be unable to pay the firm in accordnce with its contractual obligations.eg:Bankurptcy
Market Risk presents thepossiblity that the party may not be willing to pay the firm.eg:preference to other creditors.
Lquidity Risk covers the possibilty that an investment may not be sold as effectively as expected by the firm.
Then after some examples and stress on the signifance of each type of risk, the discussion was directed to the credit risk management. Credit management was further categorized into 3 sub-parts:
-Credit reporting
-Credit analysis
-Credit measurement
After breifing on the desired candidates' profile they elaborated on life at Lehman Brothers. Their main point of emphasis was on how they take care of even the minutiae concern of their employees preventing it from becoming a botheration. They substantiated htis point by explaining the role of a retention manager assigned to each unit, their approach on maternity issues, special child care plans in which employees are allowed to bring their children with them to work, etc.
Then as the discussion moved to details of Credit Risk Management Research Analyst program I opened my personal dairy...