JP Morgan Chase to use computer estimates to monitor hours worked by junior bankers
JP Morgan Chase has started to compare the hours junior investment bankers claim to have worked against logs on its IT system.The US bank said it would begin issuing reports to junior bankers that compare computer-generated estimates of their work weeks against their self-reported time sheets as part of a pilot scheme.The company said it planned to roll out the programme more widely across its investment bank, with IT estimates based on employees’ weekly digital activities including video calls, desktop keystrokes and scheduled meetings.“Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness, not enforcement,” JP Morgan said in a statement.“It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing, and encourage open conversations about workload.
”In 2024, JP Morgan appointed a senior banker to oversee the wellbeing of junior staff, and has since curtailed weekend work for younger employees,The bank has also capped the working week for younger staff at 80 hours,Technology to monitor employees, known as “bossware”, has become increasingly commonplace in financial services since the increase in working from home triggered by the Covid pandemic,However, some workers have argued that it violates their privacy,The banking industry has also been tougher than others in mandating back-to-the-office policies post-pandemic.
The investment banking industry has a long history of brutal workloads and punishing hours, matched by six-figure salaries even for entry-level roles.Two years ago, a junior banker at Bank of America, Leo Lukenas III, who worked at Bank of America, died of a blood clot having previously cited work weeks of more than 100 hours.In 2013, Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt, 21, was found dead in a shower at his London flat after working 72 hours in a row.Two years later, Goldman Sachs told summer interns to make sure they went home before midnight, and not to come back to the office before 7am – which is still potentially a 17-hour day.During the pandemic a small group of newly hired investment banking analysts at Goldman Sachs compiled a slide deck showing they were working 100-hour weeks and facing abuse from colleagues affecting their mental and physical health.
“Management monitors junior banker staffing and activity levels and regularly adjusts the workloads of our teams,” Goldman has said.
UK government borrowing costs soar to highest since 2008 amid Iran war
Investors wary of the impact of the Iran conflict dumped UK government bonds on Friday, pushing the yield, or interest rate, on 10-year borrowing to its highest level since 2008.The market move followed the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to leave interest rates on hold and hint at a future increase. By Friday morning, markets were pricing in as many as three interest rate rises in 2026.Higher gilt yields create a headache for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, by pushing up the cost of servicing the government’s debt pile.The 10-year yield was 4
UK borrowing costs hit highest since 2008, as money markets predict three interest rate rises this year – business live
A key measure of UK government borrowing costs has hit its highest level since 2008, as traders bet that the energy price shock will push up interest rates.The yield, or interest rates, on 10-year UK gilts has risen to 4.927% this morning, a rise of 9 basis points (0.09 percentage points). That’s the highest level since July 2008, in the run-up to the financial crisis
Fire experts ‘kept awake’ over growing hazard of lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of the batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations.The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the continuing closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. The latest data reveals a sharp increase in battery-related fires across Scotland, while firefighters in London attend an e-bike or e-scooter fire every other day.Paul Christensen, a professor of pure and applied electrochemistry at the University of Newcastle, underlined that, while the probability of a fire from a lithium-ion battery is very low, the hazard is “very, very high, as we’ve seen with this fire in Glasgow”.Guillermo Rein, a professor of fire science at Imperial College London, said: “It’s a new technology that comes with an unintended new hazard, that keeps me awake at night
Essex police pause facial recognition camera use after study finds racial bias
Essex police have paused the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology after a study found cameras were significantly more likely to target black people than people of other ethnicities.The move to suspend use of the AI-enabled systems was revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates the use of the technology deployed so far by at least 13 police forces in London, south and north Wales, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Surrey and Sussex.The ICO said Essex police had paused LFR deployments “after identifying potential accuracy and bias risks” and warned other forces to have mitigations in place. LFR systems are either mounted to fixed locations or deployed in vans. In January, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced the number of LFR vans would increase five-fold, with 50 available to every police force in England and Wales
For Mexico and Canada, injuries are striking just as World Cup hosting duty looms
When Marcel Ruiz slumped into the grass of San Diego FC’s Snapdragon stadium late in the first half of Toluca’s Concacaf Champions Cup game last Wednesday, he seemed to already know. He covered his mouth with his left hand and clutched his right knee – first the back of it, then the front – with his other hand. He turned his head every which way, perhaps hoping that he might scan something or someone who would tell him that this was not in fact happening. That his World Cup on home soil was not already over three months before it was to even start. That Mexico’s injury crisis had not just deepened further
No Limit: can rap mogul Master P really become an elite basketball coach
The 55-year-old has is an assistant coach at the University of New Orleans. Now he believes he can take the step up to the top of his sportYou are Arizona State athletics director Graham Rossini, more of a forward-thinking sports executive than a classic campus administrator. The Sun Devils basketball team have just staggered through another middling season, missing the NCAA tournament for a third straight year. You’ve just fired coach Bobby Hurley, but the vacancy isn’t what anyone in the sport would call coveted – not compared to a blue-blood program like Duke or Kentucky, or even the cross-state rival Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball, standard-bearer of the old Pac-10.You could hire another hardwood hero like Hurley, a Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball supervillain whose winning pedigree as a player surfaced only in flashes over 11 uneven years on the sideline
Harry Barnes obituary
Peers vote to back clause pardoning women convicted over illegal abortions
Farage backs Tory attack on Muslim iftar event, saying public prayer ‘was a shock’ – as it happened
Kemi Badenoch channels her fantasies as she launches the Tories’ local election campaign | John Crace
Kemi Badenoch backs Nick Timothy after he calls Islamic public prayers ‘act of domination’
Ban corporate donations to UK political parties to protect elections, says thinktank