Why the Banks Are Failing

I left banking about a year ago and many people have asked me why I left. The reason I left is the same reason we're seeing many banks fail. Banks have abandoned meritocracy in favor of political agendas. These agendas have resulted in not hiring or promoting the best candidates but in looking at ways to make the world look how they want it. This issue is across all departments at the banks however the quantitative finance departments (risk management and model development) are seeing the consequences. It is really hard to hire and train quants. Everyone struggles to find motivated, self-driven, ethical, and friendly people. These are just the basic skills of a good worker. Then add on top of that the skills of finance and add the final layer of technical skills which cover three fields of studies (math, statistics, and CS). The banks have been focusing more on reducing costs and increasing diversity which has resulted in increased risks to the firms. The failure of SVB and Credit Suisse are driven by poor risk management practices and risk management is a complex area requiring quantitative knowledge as well as finance and banking knowledge.
Government, universities, and consulting firms are driving a lot of the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and the ESG (environmental, social, governance) topics without consideration for risk management or actual fairness. I recently heard a top consulting firm tout how they measured bias with 30 different metrics. The only way to get 30 different metrics is to add your personal opinions and beliefs into the picture. Bias is nothing more that a statistical measure with the understanding of causality and inference. Overall I couldn't handle the discrimination that is going on. I believe you hire and promote the best regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, or other personal characteristics that don't effect your work.

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