This year's FN100, Financial News's annual list of the 100 most influential people in European financial markets, for the first time has a regulator in the number one slot – Mario Draghi. Not only is he going to be president of the European Central Bank from October, but also chairman of the European Systemic Risk Board, the umbrella body for the new structure of European regulation. Draghi is also chairman of the Financial Stability Board until his term ends next April.
Over the past three months, Financial News, a sister paper of the Wall Street Journal Europe, canvassed the market for opinion and drew up long lists within each the 10 categories: chief executives, regulators, investment banking, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, fund management, pensions, hedge funds, private equity and market infrastructure. All nominees had to be based in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, and central bankers and those in government were excluded, except in a regulatory capacity. Candidates were then marked by an editorial panel for influence over their area, leadership within their sector, performance and innovation over the past year, and their capacity to shape their business and/or industry over the year to come.
The financial markets, and the regulatory landscape in which they operate, have changed dramatically since the first FN100 list was published in 2005, so it is not surprising that the list reflects that shift in focus and power into the hands of the rule makers. As well as Draghi, there are another two regulators in the top 10, Stefan Ingves, the new chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, whose regulatory remit has expanded in the UK.
There are two representatives from Deutsche Bank in the top 10, Josef Ackermann and Anshu Jain, both of whom have held the number one slot in the FN100, and two names from investment banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs, Michael Sherwood, who ranked first in 2005 and 2006, and Richard Gnodde.
In ninth place is Dominique Cerutti, who will play an influential part in the proposed merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse, and behind him is Mike Faulkner, chief executive of P-Solve, who characterises the trend in the asset management industry of investment consultants managing money.
Profiles of the top 10 are listed below.
Visit Financial News to see the list in full.
1. Mario Draghi
President, European Central Bank and chairman, Financial Stability Board
Draghi ranked second on last year's overall FN100 list when he was governor of the Bank of Italy and chairman of the Financial Stability Board. In October he will swap stewardship of his domestic central bank for the presidency of the European Central Bank. Known as "il Signor Altrove" (Mr. Somewhere Else) because he always seems to be in two places at once, his ability will now be tested to its limit. The former Goldman Sachs managing director will stay on at the FSB -- the body set up by the G20 to co-ordinate international regulation – until his three-year term ends in April 2012.
2. Josef Ackermann
Chief executive, Deutsche Bank
Next year will mark Ackermann's decade at the helm of Deutsche, and he seems determined to go out with a bang. After "kitchen sinking" the integration costs of acquiring Postbank last year, the group has reiterated its ambitious target of €10bn in pre-tax profits for 2011 -- compared with €4bn last year and €5.2bn in 2009. At the top of Ackermann's agenda is succession. He turned 63 this year and has said he will step down in May 2013, but is expected to name his replacement sooner. Ackermann has turned Deutsche into the largest and most profitable European investment bank over the past 15 years while also diversifying, and handing over the baton smoothly would cap his career.
3. Michael Sherwood
Co-chief executive, Goldman Sachs International, vice-chairman, Goldman Sachs
Sherwood's star continues to rise at Goldman Sachs, which he joined as a graduate in 1986. This year he was given the role of chairing the bank's partnership committee, in addition to his day jobs as vice-chairman of the bank and co-head, with Richard Gnodde, of Goldman Sachs International. He was paid $14.4m last year for his efforts. A fixed-income trader by training, Sherwood, who turns 46 this month, is likely to take a typically blunt approach to helping Goldman Sachs restore its profitability in the face of regulatory change. Europe and Asia are likely to be the key battlegrounds in the coming year.
4. Stefan Ingves
Chairman, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
The governor of the Swedish Central Bank has just taken over as chairman of the highly influential Basel committee from Nout Wellink, who has come to the end of his second seven-year term at the Dutch central bank. While the full implementation of Basel III is still seven years off, the G20 countries have committed to the adoption of its capital framework by the end of this year. Some, including Switzerland and the UK, are augmenting those recommendations. The committee sets the tempo for financial regulation with, for example, its recently agreed measures for systemically important banks globally.
5. Brady Dougan
Chief executive, Credit Suisse
Dougan continues to reap the benefits at Credit Suisse of having pulled back from some of the riskier corners of the capital markets before the worst of the crisis hit. In his fifth year in charge, Dougan, who turns 52 next month, faces stiff competition from his former boss and mentor, Oswald Grübel, who is now running UBS. A clear-minded and focused manager, Dougan has rebuilt the foundations of Credit Suisse, reducing risk and the volatility of earnings. He has also overhauled the bank's balance sheet, pioneering the adoption of contingent convertibles or "CoCos". Credit Suisse has one of the strongest capital bases of any firm, with a Tier 1 capital ratio of 17.2%.
6. Richard Gnodde
Co-head of global investment banking at Goldman Sachs and co-chief executive, Goldman Sachs International
Gnodde, a smooth-talking 51-year-old South African, added the role of co-head of global investment banking in May to his existing role as co-head of Goldman Sachs International with Michael Sherwood. He shares the new role with David Solomon and John Weinberg in New York and is the human face of the bank in Europe, spearheading its efforts to retain investment banking dominance outside the US. This year, Goldman is top of the European M&A rankings, third in Europe for investment banking fees and second in Asia, according to data provider Dealogic.
7. Anshu Jain
Head of the corporate and investment bank, Deutsche Bank
Since stepping up as sole head of the corporate and investment bank a year ago, the 48-year-old Jain has wasted no time. He has cut leverage and risk while maintaining Deutsche's status as a global flow-monster and topping the rankings by European investment banking fees. He has overhauled the management and business structure to integrate corporate and transaction banking with the investment bank, and the division continues to prop up the group – last year, Jain's business generated 73% of group revenues, and in the first quarter it made 85% of the group's profits.
8. Mervyn King
Governor, Bank of England
You would have thought King has enough on his plate domestically with absorbing the new prudential regulator -- headed by Hector Sants -- into the Bank of England and flexing his newly acquired macro-prudential powers. But last month the Bank of International Settlements, the club for central bankers, made him chair of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision, which oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, replacing Jean-Claude Trichet. King has been leading calls for stricter bank capital regulations in the wake of the financial crisis. He now has an international platform to do something about it.
9. Dominique Cerutti
President and deputy chief executive, NYSE Euronext
Cerutti's star is in the ascendant. He has been named to the eight-man executive team that will lead the global exchange group forged from the merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse, a deal that will create the world's biggest derivatives exchange -- assuming it gets past competition authorities. Cerutti joined NYSE Euronext in 2009 after more than 20 years with computer giant IBM and since then has focused on building out the group's Universal Technology Platform system across its markets. As head of technology, he will play a pivotal role in integrating the systems of the combined group and developing its IT franchise into a significant revenue stream.
10. Mike Faulkner
Chief executive, P-Solve
Faulkner epitomises one of the biggest shifts taking place in Europe's asset management industry: the conversion of investment consulting firms into asset managers. His team has beaten equities, gilts and its benchmark by more than two percentage points a year for the past seven, with a return of 9.5% a year. This top performance has persuaded 50 clients to appoint P-Solve to manage a total of £2.2bn since it launched the service in 2003. Faulkner is never at a loss for ideas. In his early years, according to a former colleague, when taking part in presentations he used to be restricted to three slides, to ensure the client didn't get lost.
This story appears on FINS courtesy of Financial News, where it originally appeared. Visit Financial News for the full FN100 list. Yasmine Chinwala is a reporter for Financial News. Write to her here.
