The earnings train continues on with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo checking in today. 

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Typically, bank earnings calls aren't the most exciting events. 

It's a chance for analysts to ask why a certain number wasn't higher or lower, or what *insert some obscure regulation* will mean for the future of the bank's balance sheet. 

That was not the case, however, during Citi's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat and chief financial officer Mark Mason had to field a barrage of pointed questions from analysts. That included asking about the status of Corbat's succession plan, steps the bank took prior to the $400 million fine it faced from regulators, and Citi's strategy for cleaning up its risk, compliance, and infrastructure issues.

Reed Alexander has the full rundown from what was a memorable earnings call. 

Click here to read the entire story.

They don't just rep you. They invest in you, too. Nice piece by Jack Newsham on lawyers taking stakes in their clients. Check out the story here. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes

• Bank of America posted third quarter results Wednesday that missed expectations for revenue and sales. 
• The bank posted $20.3 billion in revenue in the third quarter, a drop of 11% from the period last year.
• But the bank's beat analysts' expectations on earnings per share and net income. 
• Net income at the bank rose to $4.9 billion, 15% lower than last year but higher than Q2's figure of $4.3 billion. 
• The bank said aside more than $1 billion in provisions against bad loans, but this was significantly less than provision for credit losses in Q2. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Bank of America posted a drop in revenue for the third quarter of this year, missing analyst expectations, as its consumer-focused business bore the brunt of low interest rates.

In stark contrast with its four biggest Wall Street rivals, Bank of America said on Wednesday its revenues dropped to $20.3 billion in the three months to September, 11% lower than the same period last year and below the $2o.6 billion forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg. 

The bank's posted net income of $4.9 billion, 16% lower compared to last year although it beat Bloomberg's estimate of $4.3 billion. Sales came in at $20.45 billion, against forecasts for $20.81 billion.

Bank of America's shares fell 3%  in pre-market trading. 

Here are the key numbers:

• Net income: $4.9 billion versus $4.3 billion estimated

• Earnings per share: $0.51 versus $0.49 estimated

• Revenue: $20.3 billion versus $20.8 billion estimated

"As the economy continued to recover, we generated nearly $5 billion in earnings this quarter, reflecting the diversity of our business model, our industry-leading market position and digital capabilities, and our adherence to responsible growth," Bank of America CEO and chairman Brian Moynihan said.

Given the bank's vast deposit rate, analysts have long considered Bank of America as being most vulnerable to changes in interest rates. 

The Federal Reserve, which has injected trillions of dollars into the financial system, has cut US interest rates to near zero and has said it has no plans to raise them until at least 2023, as the economy continues to recover.

The bank's net interest income fell 17% year on year in the third quarter to $10.1 billion, because of lower interest rates. 

Net income at its consumer banking division fell to $2.1 billion from $3.3 billion last year, but Moynihan was upbeat. Over the third quarter of the year, many consumers were still drawing down on savings built up during lockdowns over the spring, or had supplemental income in the form of government-backed payments.

"Our consumer business earned $2.1 billion, as asset quality remained sound and spending rebounded," he said.

Read More: Goldman Sachs says buy these 35 stocks for big gains right now, as they offer double-digit sales growth and explosive margin expansion

The bank set aside $1.4 billion to cover for credit losses in the third quarter, up from $0.8 billion last year, but below the $5.1 billion it put aside in the second quarter. 

The rally in the stock, bond and commodity markets from late March onwards helped the bank's trading division. Total revenue from the global markets division rose by 11% year on year to $4.40 billion, with revenue from its equity division rising 6% to $1.2 billion, while its fixed-income activities brought in a total of $2.1 billion, a rise of 3% over the previous year, the bank said.

Read More: A fund manager beating 90% of his rivals told us why he actively avoids companies with giant profit margins — and shares 5 stocks he thinks will keep winning for years 

Rival banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup all beat expectations with their third-quarter results.

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Storied Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has been going through some massive changes under CEO David Solomon.

It's taken big steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. It has seen a slew of partner departures — many in the securities division. And it's making big pushes into businesses like wealth management and transaction banking.  

The bank announced third-quarter earnings on Wednesday that trounced Wall Street's estimates and showed continued strength through the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest on people moves, deals, wealth management

• Goldman Sachs' Joe Duran is planning to hire dozens of advisors for the firm's wealth business, and says it's getting a boost from companies pushing early retirements and layoffs
• Goldman Sachs just shook up its divisions to create a new consumer and wealth-management arm that will be run by Stephanie Cohen and Tucker York
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent announcing a leadership shakeup in its powerhouse M&A group
• A majority of Goldman Sachs' summer interns prefer Instagram to TikTok, believe remote work hurts relationships, and think Biden will be elected president in November
• Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citi are Wall Street's most active fintech investors. These are the 10 startups they've poured money into so far this year.
• Wall Street is starting to get back to work. Here are the latest return-to-office plans for 5 firms, including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
• Goldman Sachs just lost another wealth team to UBS in one of the industry's biggest financial adviser moves of the year
• POWER PLAYERS: Meet 7 Goldman Sachs real-estate bankers who are advising companies on megadeals like Blackstone's $18.7 billion bet on warehouses
• Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs are hiring journalists from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg to repair their own images. Here's a look at their strategies.
• Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to acquire General Motors' credit-card business away from Capital One as it looks to rev up its consumer-banking unit
• A peek inside Goldman Sachs' internal idea factory that's hatched products like a LinkedIn for Wall Street. Here's what else it's trying to disrupt at the bank.
• REVEALED: The 20 leaders in charge of the powerful Goldman Sachs merchant-banking division that's raising $100 billion for a new alternatives push
• A drive-in Hamptons concert where the Chainsmokers played and Goldman Sachs' CEO DJed is under fire for drawing crowds that weren't social distancing
• Inside the rise of Ram Sundaram, the leader of a secretive Goldman Sachs desk that's minting billions by designing some of the bank's most imaginative — and controversial — trades
• Inside Goldman Sachs's first in-person board meeting since the pandemic began
• Goldman Sachs designed its glitzy London office with tons of amenities, but little parking. In a post-pandemic world, it could be a big snag as the firm looks to bring workers back in.
• $60 billion quant fund Two Sigma just hired Goldman Sachs' first-ever chief data officer to lead its massive tech team
• Goldman Sachs just hired Kurt Hoffman, an expert in distressed situations and bankruptcy, to join a trading unit known for some of the bank's most lucrative deals

Culture and talent

• Goldman Sachs just overhauled how it does performance reviews, and 10% of staff will get rated underperformers each year
• Goldman Sachs' summer internship is going virtual, joining the likes of Bank of America and Morgan Stanley who are running remote programs
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent to staff announcing its new head of regulatory affairs. The former White House counsel will be tasked with helping clean up the bank's 1MDB drama.
• Goldman Sachs just hired 2 senior recruiting execs focused on luring top talent from other firms —and it's a huge departure from the firm's traditional promote-from-within mentality
• Read the full memo David Solomon just sent to 38,000 Goldman Sachs employees explaining why he's moving his management team out of stuffy offices and into open seating
• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and his management team are ditching their stuffy offices and moving to an open floor plan closer to the people so they can feel the buzz of New York headquarters
• Goldman Sachs just unveiled a new gender pronouns initiative as part of a broader inclusion push at the Wall Street firm
• Read the memo Goldman Sachs just sent to its employees unveiling a new pronouns initiative

Coronavirus response

• Inside a 38,000-person remote work rollout at Goldman Sachs: sleepless nights, assembly lines, and an Amazon-like hub on a Manhattan trading floor
• How a massive New York hospital secured 130,000 N95 masks from China with help from a senior partner at Goldman Sachs, private jets, and a call to Warren Buffett
• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon just sent a firm-wide voicemail about the coronavirus crisis. Here's what he told employees.
• Goldman Sachs and Bank of America just updated their WFH policies — again. Here's what they're telling employees about the latest steps aimed at combating the spread of coronavirus.
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs top brass just sent detailing the firm's coronavirus contingency plans, including separating employees into 'blue' and 'white' teams to alternate working from the office and home

Consumer push, transaction banking, wealth management

• Goldman Sachs is building an AI-powered digital assistant and checking account for its Marcus consumer bank. Here's how it's shaping up.
• Why Goldman Sachs, which has a $509 billion wealth business geared towards ultra-rich clients, is buying a small Virginia fintech for financial advisers and retail investors
• Goldman Sachs just announced its first partnership for transaction banking as it looks to build a new $1 billion business moving money around the world
• Goldman Sachs is sending much less mail to potential Marcus customers. A senior exec lays out the reason why.
• A Goldman Sachs exec explains why the bank isn't sweating concerns over the Apple Card's profitability
• A Wall Street firm crunched the numbers around how much Apple will make from its new credit card with Goldman Sachs
• Here's why Goldman Sachs just did its biggest deal in nearly 20 years as part of a pivot to less wealthy clients
• Goldman Sachs execs are opening up about their plans for Marcus, and they think it can do to banking what iTunes did to the music industry
• Goldman Sachs' partnership with Apple could move it a step closer to being 'a bank branch in your pocket'
• Human resources is the next battleground for Wall Street wealth advisers as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs jockey over new turf
• Goldman Sachs has a novel method for predicting the next economic slump, and it's at the heart of its hot new business

Technology

• Goldman Sachs' top tech exec explains how a fresh slew of senior hires are transforming the bank's approach to building products
• Amazon just entered the small business loan market with Goldman. Here's how the e-commerce giant is building a bank for itself.
• JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are finally beginning to embrace fintech startups. Here's how they test the waters before committing to working with them.
• We talked to the execs behind Bloomberg's new data partnership with Goldman Sachs. Here's why they think it's a sign of Wall Street's future.
• Goldman Sachs is putting its own Marquee app on Amazon's cloud in a pitch to lure more fintech developers
• Goldman Sachs is embracing open-source code and its chief data officer says it's part of a "new world" of software
• Read the memo the new Goldman tech chief sent to the firm's 9,000-plus engineers where he urges them to ditch presentations in favor of Amazon's famous narratives
• A new Goldman Sachs tech exec hired from Amazon is taking a page from the Jeff Bezos playbook by urging engineers to ditch PowerPoint and write memos
• Goldman Sachs' new CTO shares his strategy for attracting outside developers to work more closely with the bank, giving a glimpse into the future of how Wall Street will work
• A Verizon executive is joining Goldman Sachs as chief technology officer as the Wall Street bank reshuffles its ranks
• Marty Chavez is retiring from Goldman Sachs. We chatted with him about the bank's tech transformation, why now is the right time for him to step down, and what he's planning next.
• Goldman Sachs is scrapping a homegrown email app it once touted — and it's a sign the bank is moving away from building tech in house
• Goldman Sachs is exploring plans to create a Netflix for data, and it marks a new frontier for Wall Street
• Goldman Sachs' internal idea factory hatched a plan for the Google of Wall Street, and it's now looking for the next big thing to disrupt the bank
• Goldman Sachs' big bet on the future of Wall Street had a rocky start. Here's the inside story of the bank's struggle to grow its next business and an exclusive look at its plans

Trading

• Bank of America is shaking up its global markets division and poached a Goldman Sachs exec to fill a key new role
• Goldman Sachs' massive quant business now rivals AQR and Two Sigma. We talked to the bank's top quant about asset growth, finding data sources, and why critics of computerized trading are wrong.
• Goldman Sachs' CEO tells us the bank is winning over quant clients. That helped it outpace rivals like JPMorgan last quarter.
• Goldman Sachs is cutting about 5% of sales and trading staff after senior equities leaders delivered a tough town-hall talk
• Goldman Sachs is moving away from a tool championed by its former CFO as it pushes its traders to see clients where they once saw quick wins
• Goldman Sachs is shuffling its top stock trading executives as the business tries to claw back market share from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan
• Goldman Sachs's bond trading unit is still trying to find its way — and it represents a key challenge for new CEO David Solomon

Alternatives

• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs just sent naming 4 execs to lead its private-equity investments across the merchant-banking division
• Goldman Sachs is making targeted hires for a 'storefront' for alternative investments that's modeled after firms like KKR and Blackstone
• Goldman Sachs' push into private equity is ruffling feathers at Blackstone — and it might be a sign of big client skirmishes to come
• Goldman Sachs execs are jockeying for control of the firm's lucrative private investing units after a plan to merge it — and the stakes couldn't be higher
• Meet the Goldman Sachs execs tasked with building the firms' new Blackstone-esque private-investing unit — and pumping up the bank's flagging stock price
• 'It's good to be Rich': Meet the Goldman Sachs banker who has built a private investing empire that goes head-to-head with Blackstone — and you've probably never heard of him
• Goldman Sachs is considering a shakeup of its alternative investing units as part of a plan to simplify the bank's strategy

Deals

• Goldman Sachs is assembling a team of senior bankers focused on middle-market private equity. Here are the key hires and the playbook they'll use to land new clients.
• Goldman Sachs unloaded some of its WeWork shares before its investment bankers pitched investors on what it once considered a $60 billion-plus IPO
• Goldman Sachs just revealed it sold part of its Uber stake to SoftBank and it helped boost a $4.5 billion business
• A senior Goldman Sachs fintech banker was about to join JPMorgan — but then got lured back —and it's another sign of the fierce battle for M&A talent
• Goldman just promoted a star tech banker close to Tesla and Microsoft to co-head one of its most profitable businesses, as incoming CEO Solomon makes his mark
• Goldman Sachs just announced a shakeup of its leadership — and it signals the rise of bankers over traders
• A tug-of-war between Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan over a top banker highlights Wall Street's $1 trillion battleground

Investor day 2020

• Inside Goldman Sachs' first investor day, where avocado toast and crab apples were served with tech talk, 3-year plans, and a surprising trading mea culpa
• Goldman Sachs just revealed a new wealth brand at its first-ever investor day. It shows how the bank is trying to reshape its strategy — and image.
• Goldman Sachs just unveiled hundreds of slides laying out the future of the company. Here are the 10 crucial slides that show how it plans to transform into a bank for everyone.
• Goldman Sachs is rethinking how it makes private-equity bets with its own money – and one analyst thinks that shift will be a big driver of its stock price

Careers 

• Goldman Sachs is now hiring high-school graduates for roles in Salt Lake City, one of the company's 'high value' locations
• Goldman Sachs has lost at least 54 partners since David Solomon became CEO. We're keeping a running list — and compiling details from insiders about how the exits are being celebrated.
• Read the full memo Goldman Sachs' top brass just sent to staff announcing 2 heads of the bank's private-investing arm are out as it's gearing up to raise billions
• 2 coheads of Goldman Sachs' private-investing business are retiring, in a blow to David Solomon's fundraising plans
• A Goldman Sachs partner who just resigned is leaving behind a job overseeing $2 billion for a London VC with a leading stake in neobank Revolut
• Read the memo announcing the departure of Adam Korn, the Goldman Sachs exec who was 'instrumental in building and championing' innovations like the bank's Marquee platform
• Another Goldman Sachs partner is out. HR chief Dane Holmes is the latest key player to leave the Wall Street bank in a matter of days.
• Goldman Sachs is offering buyouts to encourage partners to leave as CEO David Solomon works to shrink one of the most elite clubs on Wall Street
• Goldman Sachs is making renewable energy a big priority based on its hiring strategy. It's a sign that its ideas incubator is working.
• Goldman Sachs is shaking up the way it stocks one of the most elite clubs on Wall Street — and it shows how banks are back to making money again

SEE ALSO: We identified the 70 most powerful people at JPMorgan. Here's our exclusive org chart.

SEE ALSO: We mapped out Citi's 40 most powerful investment bankers. Here's our exclusive org chart.

SEE ALSO: Here are the 30 most powerful people in Bank of America's $8 billion bond-trading division

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NOW WATCH: Why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes

On television, Larry Kudlow was optimistic. "We have contained this," President Donald Trump's top economic advisor said of the coronavirus. "I won't say 'airtight,' but it's pretty close to airtight."

But hours after his Feb. 25 appearance on CNBC, Kudlow's private remarks to a right-wing think tank were far more circumspect, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The virus, he said, was "contained in the US, to date, but now we just don't know."

The comments to the board of the Hoover Institution, which Kudlow confirmed to The Times, were recorded in a memo by William Callanan, a hedge fund consultant who noted with alarm that Kudlow and other US officials who spoke to the gathering, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, brought up COVID-19 "as a point of concern, totally unprovoked."

In an email to David Tepper, founder of the Appaloosa Management hedge fund, Callanan noted that the president's economic advisor had just "revised his statement about the virus being contained."

His attached memo was forwarded throughout the firm, The Times reported, and from there to others on Wall Street.

Investors, The Times noted, were already selling off stocks at the time. But they understood the significance of administration officials appearing to support their fears: "The president's aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent," The Times explained.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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NOW WATCH: July 15 is Tax Day — here's what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• Joe Biden says he and Warren Buffett recently discussed what they agreed to be America's unrivaled prospects.
• "Just got off the phone with Warren Buffett, talking about how we have position unlike 50, 70, 80 years ago to lead the whole damn world in a way that no one else can," the Democratic presidential nominee told donors, according to Bloomberg.
• "I will bet on America the rest of my life," Buffett, the billionaire investor who is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said at his company's annual meeting in May.
• Buffett hasn't backed Biden for president, despite campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and tearing into Donald Trump at one of her rallies.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Joe Biden spoke with Warren Buffett recently about America's global leadership and potential, the Democratic presidential nominee said during a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday.

"Just got off the phone with Warren Buffett, talking about how we have position unlike 50, 70, 80 years ago to lead the whole damn world in a way that no one else can," Biden told the group of Wall Street executives, according to Bloomberg.

"There's no limit to America's future," the former vice president added.

Read more: Chewy cofounder Ryan Cohen lays out the crucial skills he learned from Warren Buffett and his father, and explains why he's all-in on Apple

Biden's comments echo the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO's relentless optimism about the country's prospects.

"Nothing can stop America when you get right down to it," Buffett said at Berkshire's annual meeting in May. "I will bet on America the rest of my life."

Buffett hasn't endorsed Biden, despite supporting Democrats in recent years. He threw fundraisers for Barack Obama in 2011 and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016, once taking the stage at a rally to blast Donald Trump's business career, excuses about his tax returns, and disrespectful treatment of others.

Read more: UBS says investors need to diversify away from Big Tech — and shares 3 strategies that will them stay on top of the next phase of the market's recovery

Buffett may have shied away from supporting Biden out of concern that Trump voters would boycott Berkshire's businesses, Yahoo Finance's Andy Serwer said on Wednesday. Buffett could be especially worried about a consumer backlash when the pandemic is already weighing on his company.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Wall Street investors knew of private concern about the coronavirus within the Trump administration and used the knowledge to position for the following market plunge, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
• A memo from the hedge-fund consultant William Callanan described White House officials' wariness, expressed in meetings in late February, about a US outbreak. Meanwhile, the officials publicly allayed concerns about the coronavirus.
• Callanan sent the note to David Tepper, the founder of Appaloosa Management, on February 26. The memo spread throughout the firm and to investors at other offices.
• Some recipients adjusted their portfolios accordingly, viewing the US officials' private statements as a warning of devastation to come, The Times reported.
• The S&P 500 plummeted 4.4% on February 27, and by March 23 it sat roughly 25% lower than the day Tepper received the memo.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A February memo shared among Wall Street's elite detailed the Trump administration's private concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Some heeded the warning and cashed out on bearish positions when markets tanked later that month, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

On February 24, senior members of President Donald Trump's economic team privately spoke with board members of the Hoover Institution, a research organization at Stanford University, about the risks of a domestic outbreak. One advisor said the White House couldn't yet estimate the effects on the US economy, suggesting to some that the coronavirus could cause significant harm, the report said.

But administration officials publicly allayed fears that the virus would slam the US. The next day, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said the nation was "pretty close to airtight," despite privately telling the Hoover board that "we just don't know" how contained the virus was, The Times said.

William Callanan, a hedge-fund consultant and member of the Hoover board, wrote in a memo at the time that almost every administration official addressed the virus "as a point of concern, totally unprovoked," according to The Times.

Read more:200-plus money managers pay thousands to see which stocks are on Jim Osman's buy list. He details 2 he sees doubling, and one that has at least 50% left to soar.

The memo quickly spread throughout the hedge-fund industry just as markets began to grapple with the prospect of a US outbreak.

On February 25, Callanan emailed David Tepper, the Appaloosa Management founder, about the Hoover meetings, highlighting the wariness expressed by the administration officials.

In an interview with CNBC on February 1, Tepper had told investors to be "cautious" until more was known about the virus. Callanan's memo reinforced his bearish stance.

The email spread through Appaloosa and, eventually, to investors outside the firm. Over the next day, at least seven investors across four money-management offices received elements of Callanan's memo, The Times reported.

Many of the investors, equipped with knowledge of the Hoover meetings, adjusted their portfolios accordingly. One told The Times that their reaction was to "short everything," while another said they added to their existing short bets. Some said they even bought up essential goods like toilet paper, reading the memo as a preview of nationwide devastation to come.

Read more:Lori Keith's mutual fund has grown 98,000% in 12 years by focusing on unflashy companies. She told us about 7 such stocks that thrived in the recession — and will do even better in the recovery.

The bearish adjustments likely paid off big. The S&P 500 plunged about 4.4% on February 27, the day after the Hoover memo spread from Appaloosa to other investing firms. By the time the benchmark stock index bottomed on March 23, it sat roughly 25% lower from its level on February 27.

Tepper initially denied receiving the memo before telling The Times that while he likely got it, he didn't pay it much attention.

"We were in the information flow on COVID at that point," Tepper said. "Because we were so public about this warning, people were calling us at this time."

He added that Appaloosa held a bearish position on February 23, days before he received Callanan's email.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 21 high-growth stocks that have huge upside potential as future index leaders

The Treasury market might need Fed support indefinitely after ballooning in 2020, official says

US weekly jobless claims rise to 898,000 as labor-market recovery stumbles

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: July 15 is Tax Day — here's what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

We asked our Rising Stars of Wall Street to recommend a book to our readers and their selections range from investing "how-to" classics to a timely retelling of the Spanish Flu Pandemic, from "Margaritaville" singer Jimmy Buffett's autobiography to a 368-page work on why we sleep. 

The full selection of 32 books, and the stars' comments about them, are below.

Read our full list of the rising stars of Wall Street shaking up investing, trading, and dealmaking.

SEE ALSO: Meet 2020's Rising Stars of Wall Street from firms like Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and Bridgewater shaking up investing, trading, and dealmaking

"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara

Rising star: Alexander Tingle, director of technology, media, and telecom investment banking, UBS Investment Banking

Tingle's partner, who is also a banker, once recommended he read "A Little Life," the haunting, critically acclaimed novel by Hanya Yanagihara that was published in 2015 and centers on ambitious young men who move to New York City.

"I loved it," Tingle said, admitting with a laugh that he's not the most avid reader, but "A Little Life" has stuck with him — and not only because it's set in New York, where he's now building his career.

One of the central characters, a successful go-getter, is struggling with his mental health throughout the story. For Tingle, he was inspired by that character's portrayal and brought to mind mental health-related stigmas that persist in some workplaces, especially for people in cutthroat positions.

"How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers" by David Rubenstein

Rising star: Will Boeckman, head of US electronic sales, Citadel Securities

Will Boeckman, Citadel Securities' head of electronic trading for fixed income, currencies, and commodities, named Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein's recently-released book "How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers" as his go-to pick.

"It's kind of an anthology of various industries," Boeckman said of the book, which aggregates highlights from Rubenstein's interviews with noteworthy individuals like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whom he spoke with on his eponymous show on Bloomberg TV.

"A key takeaway from these stories is the importance of finding your passion. I'm obviously very passionate about finance," Boeckman said, "and it's something that was mentioned by a few of the people" that Rubenstein interviewed.

"Give and Take" by Adam Grant

Rising stars: Rachel Murray, vice president at Moelis, and Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, vice president at Credit Suisse 

Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, a vice president in syndicated loans sales at Credit Suisse, named "Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success" by Adam Grant, a legendary Wharton professor, as among her favorites. "It's about striving to be somebody who gives to others and then expects nothing in return," she said, "and how ironically fruitful that can be for your own life and career."

Moelis's Rachel Murray, a restructuring banker told Business Insider: "It shows that it's not just about you. In the grand scheme of things, it's how you help others along the way. How you can grow the pie for everyone.'

"Open" by Andre Agassi

Rising star: Daniel Costanza, chief data scientist, Citigroup

Citigroup's Daniel Costanza recommends "Open" by tennis champ Andre Agassi, which he called "a really wonderful book about his experience in tennis where he didn't really like tennis in the moment," but eventually came to embrace it, he said.

"I think his experience of learning how to love the day to day and love the moment is really powerful," Costanza explained. 

"Young Money" by Kevin Roose

Rising star: Daniel Costanza, chief data scientist, Citigroup

For those flirting with the idea of a finance career who have yet to take the plunge, Daniel Costanza recommended "Young Money," a collection of stories by author Kevin Roose about the trials and tribulations of young financiers. 

The book holds insights into "all the wrong reasons why you can go into finance," Costanza said, making it a cautionary tale for those who aren't sure if the intense pace of life on Wall Street is right for them.

"Dare to Lead" by Brené Brown

Rising star: Alexis Rosenblum, chief corporate sustainability officer, BlackRock

Throughout the pandemic, Rosenblum has switched to audiobooks — "I'm not sure why, but I think that's the only time I get out of the house: when I take a walk in the afternoon, put my headphones in, and listen to something"— and recently listened to"Dare to Lead", a book by Brené Brown.

It resonated with Rosenblum, who said that she's always been drawn to learning about the field of psychology, and Brown explores human themes like empathy, courage, and shame.

Brown builds the book around the famous "arena" quote from Theodore Roosevelt, about credit belonging "to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." It inspired Rosenblum, who took away lessons about being a leader.

"Leaders are in the arena, and there are lots of people in the stands who are there just to criticize or comment on what you're doing. But being in the arena takes courage. It gives you a lot of advice around, how do you think about having that courage?" she said.

"Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Selecting Superior Returns and Controlling Risk" by Richard Grinold and Ronald Kahn

Rising star: Robert Lam, co-head of credit, Man Group's Man Numeric 

Man Group's Robert Lam recommended "Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Selecting Superior Returns and Controlling Risk" by Richard Grinold and Ronald Kahn.

"It's pretty technical, but a must-read for any quant," he said. 

"The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" by Jeff Hobbs

Rising star: Mir Subjally, credit trader, Deutsche Bank

"It was a really interesting dichotomy. It's about a young African-American man who grew up in a rougher neighborhood in Newark but went to Yale and ended up being really successful in his academic work. But he struggled at times to mesh the two worlds together," Mir Subjally, a credit trader, told BI about "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" by Jeff Hobbs. 

"It shows that the path to equality isn't always as easy and seamless. Going to Yale on a scholarship, it can still be really hard for people. People often don't get that."

"Start With Why" by Simon Sinek

Rising star: Doug Scott, CEO, Ethic

In Ethic's early days, CEO Doug Scott said he and his team gave investors and employees the business and leadership-focused book "Start With Why," written by the author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek. It was inspirational for the co-founder, and integral for starting Ethic and making a transition from traditional financial services.

It tries to get across that the "core of everything is: why this, why are we actually focusing on this? Why are you building this business? Why are you in this career? 'Why' — that was the core tenet," he said.

"The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson

Rising star: Danielle Cooper, director, Annaly Capital Management

"The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson is an analysis of the 70-year Great Migration of Black people in America from the rural south to the urban north after the end of reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow segregation.

The book is very narrative, following the lives of multiple migrants, and inspired Danielle Cooper, who is Black, to talk more with her family about their history of migration.

"The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by John M. Barry

Rising star: Danielle Cooper, director, Annaly Capital Management

Danielle Cooper also recommended an exceedingly timely read: "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by John M. Barry.

While Cooper said she usually reads fiction, she read this book as part of a series of firm-wide virtual book clubs since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

"The Great Influenza," is an in-depth retelling of the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the last global pandemic, and Cooper said the similarities between this pandemic and the last one show how much we still have to figure out.

"Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming" edited by Paul Hawken

Rising star: Jay Lipman, co-founder and president, Ethic

Jay Lipman pointed to a book that Ethic has given to people close to the company, called "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming," edited by Paul Hawken and produced by the non-profit organization Project Drawdown.

"For me, it's a game plan of how to actually seek solutions to the biggest existential threat that we actually face as a species and as a planet," Lipman said. "Whenever I introduce people to the book, you see people get obsessed with the kinds of things that we can be doing, whether that's regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, or reducing food waste."

"Beating the Street" by Peter Magellan

Rising star: Jennifer Fo Cardillo, portfolio manager, Fideltiy

"Being a Fidelity person, I had to pick a Peter Lynch book," said Jennifer Fo Cardillo, a small-cap portfolio manager at the firm, referring to the famed money manager and longtime Fidelity investor.

Lynch ran the firm's Magellan Fund from 1977 to 1990.

"'Beating the Street has been one of my favorites, such a classic. It's about how Peter ran Magellan day-to-day. And so I've just found it to be an excellent guide to investment processes for new fund managers," she said.

"Faith of My Fathers" by John McCain

Rising star: Victor Perez, vice president in credit derivative trading, Wells Fargo

For Victor Perez, a Naval veteran and vice president in credit derivative trading at Wells Fargo, the late John McCain's "Faith of My Fathers,"a 1999 autobiography and memoir, is a must-read.

The late Arizona senator and Naval officer "was a role model for us going through the Naval academy," Perez said. The book looks back on McCain's pedigree, his father and grandfather both being esteemed four-star Naval admirals, and McCain having survived imprisonment and torture in Vietnam starting from when he was shot down while flying over Hanoi in 1967.

"A Pirates Look at Fifty" by Jimmy Buffet

Rising star: Victor Perez, vice president in credit derivative trading, Wells Fargo

Another book Victor Perez recommended, albeit with a much different tone, is Jimmy Buffett's "A Pirate Looks at Fifty," in which the musician takes readers on a journey through the Caribbean, and shares stories from his life. The book centers on Buffett's experiences surrounding his fiftieth birthday.

"The guy is just so chill, so cool," Perez said, adding, "I'm like, man, that's that's what I want to do when I'm older."

"Just Kids" by Patti Smith

Lauren Goodwin, economist and multi-asset portfolio strategist, New York Life Investments

"It's a story about friendship and finding beauty in New York City when times are hard both for yourself and for the city, and the drivers of the creative process," New York Life Investments's Lauren Goodwin said about Patti Smith's popular "Just Kids". "I am trained in music and language, and so these processes and styles are really near and dear to my heart."

"But Patti Smith is just a generous and lyrical narrator, and she shares glimpses of the fabulous yet grungy 70s, music scene, while really anchoring in the humanity of her experience and that time."

"Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd

Rising star: Paul Kamenski, co-head of credit, Man Group's Man Numeric 

If you're looking to read about value investing, Man Group's Paul Kamenski suggests not worrying about getting your hands on billionaire hedge funder Seth Klarman's out-of-print book, "Margin of Safety".

"Much has been said about 'Margin of Safety' over the years, but in my opinion nothing quite compares to the original "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd. They epitomized the concept through their careful approach, still relevant to this day," said Kamenski.

"Contrarian Investment Strategy: The Psychology of Stock Market Success" by David Dreman

Rising star: Paul Kamenski, co-head of credit, Man Group's Man Numeric 

Paul Kamenski also put forward David Dreman's "Contrarian Investment Strategy: The Psychology of Stock Market Success"  as a must-read as they served as his first entrance into the world of systematic, quantitative investing.

"Compared with what has now often become fairly complex and evolved, his works as an early adopter of the approach were simple, intuitive, and persuasive, establishing clear roots for what it means to use a systematic approach," added Kamenski. 

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

Rising star: Kelly Winnop, principal, Blackstone

Louise May Alcott's literary classic "Little Women" is Kelly Winnop of Blackstone's top pick.

"I was just drawn to Jo's independence, and I enjoyed that it was a book about family," she said.

"Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown

Rising star: Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, vice president, Credit Suisse 

Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto's reading list comprises titles that can help make all of our lives a bit better.

"Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less," by author Greg McKeown, is a book that can help people who "feel pulled in multiple directions and can get overwhelmed," Vigmostad Giliberto said, and it helped her to "consolidate and prioritize the activities in my life, and more importantly, the thoughts in my head."

"Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker

Rising star: Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto, vice president, Credit Suisse

For those struggling to get in some much-needed rest, Lacey Vigmostad Giliberto recommended "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker."This book explores sleep's impact on your body and mind," she explained.

"Before the coronavirus pandemic, I was a daily 4:30 A.M. workout warrior and advocate for holistic nutrition, but I certainly was not prioritizing sleep in my health equation."
"This was an eye-opening and convincing read," she added," that has helped me to get significantly more shut-eye."

"The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri

Rising star: Alice Leng, vice president and quantitative finance analyst in the data & innovation group, Bank of America

An artist on the side who paints landscapes, Alice Leng recommended Robert Henri's"The Art Spirit" in part because it taught her to respect the flow of nature in her work. 

For Leng, a machine-learning expert in BofA's data and innovation group, favorite quotes include: "Art when really understood is the province of every human being," and "For an artist to be interesting to us he must have been interesting to himself."

"The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell

Rising star: Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, director of investor relations and business development, Grayscale Investments

Rayhaneh Sharif-Askar of Grayscale Investments recommended Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow."

"It's this really unique narrative that transcends time and space and involves a story that has extraterrestrial life in it. And also touches on themes of art and spirituality and society and language," Sharif-Askary said.

"A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Ed Thorp

Rising star: Philip Dobrin, senior portfolio strategist, Bridgewater Associates

Senior portfolio strategist Philip Dobrin suggested Ed Thorp's autobiography "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" and Bill Browder's "Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice".

"Reading the stories of great investors is both fun and informative," he said. "What's most interesting is the commonalities you see between the two investors despite radically different approaches and asset classes."

"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

Rising star: Vlad Moshinsky, director, Miller Buckfire

"There's a lot of game theory involved, analyzing big data to predict outcomes," Vlad Moshinsky, a restructuring banker, told Business Insider about "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.

"The concepts in that book and trilogy are very relevant today."

"Super Forecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction" by Dan Gardner and Philip E. Tetlock.

Rising star: Rachel Dwyer, principal, Apollo Global Management

Apollo's Rachel Dwyer put forward"Super Forecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction" by Dan Gardner and Philip E. Tetlock, which she read as part of her credit division's book club. 

"We have an Apollo book club. That is one of John Zito's (deputy CIO of Apollo Credit) brainchilds. Most of the people in the group participate in it. It's pretty interesting to read a book a month. We have Zoom get-togethers."

"When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi

Rising star: Shaan Tehal, vice president, Global Technology Investment Banking Group, Morgan Stanley

One of Shaan Tehal's favorite book picks is "When Breath Becomes Air," an autobiography written by Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who died at age 37 from stage IV metastatic lung cancer in 2015.

The book was published by Random House after Kalanithi passed away.

Kalanithi wrote "so poignantly and beautifully about the hard questions we should ask about our life and how we live it," Tehal said. "It was a very well-written book around the deeper philosophical thoughts that you should have around life itself."

"Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein

Rising star: Shaan Tehal, vice president, Global Technology Investment Banking Group, Morgan Stanley

Another of Shaan Tehal's suggestions is a book called "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by journalist David Epstein; it was released last year.

The book, he said, "looks at the benefits of late specialization and a diversity of experience," and how knowledge in a variety of arenas can pay off "especially when solving complex problems that require creative solutions." 

"Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth

Rising star: Sharo Atmeh, equity analyst, Alyeska Investment Group

"Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth, was the pick Sharo Atmeh of Chicago-based hedge fund Alyeska Investment Group put forward.

He was impressed by how she could identify something as qualitative as "working hard" and dissect it.

"Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey A. Moore

Rising star: John Curtius, partner, Tiger Global

Tiger Global's John Curtius suggested"Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey A. Moore, which he calls a must-read for any aspiring tech investors

"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

Miles Tobin, principal, Carlyle Group

Miles Tobin, a principal at Carlyle, said he's become more of a listener of books than a reader and that the "Catcher in the Rye", by J.D. Salinger is "one of his older but all time favorite" reads.

Read our full list of the rising stars of Wall Street shaking up investing, trading, and dealmaking.

Or take a look at their best career advice here. 

Goldman Sachs — and its other major banking competitors — are not often known for their ability to collaborate. 

While the banks may team up on regulatory issues or other industry challenges, Goldman and its peers are often battling each other for an edge across different businesses. 

But data standardization and security — two decidedly non-sexy topics in the world of finance — has become so paramount that Goldman is releasing the code for its internal data platform, known as Legend, after seven years in the making, so others in the industry can use it and build off of it. 

The reason being, according to Neema Raphael, the bank's co-chief data officer, is the "massive edge" from this platform does not come from the baseline code itself — "it's what you build on top of it."   

Data often comes in all shapes and sizes and takes a lot of time and effort to make it into something usable, but with financial services migrating closer to speaking the same data language, putting that information to work will become that much easier.

"We think of this platform as something that hasn't been available to the world before," Raphael said in an interview with Business Insider. He initially announced the firm would put the platform on the cloud of non-profit Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) last year at the foundation's conference in New York.

See more: Pricey data, slashed fees, and poor returns are hurting hedge funds' margins —and some are getting in the business of helping their rivals

The platform, originally named Alloy, and the language, known internally at the bank as PURE, are now collectively called Legend, according to a release on the release. The code will be on coding-collaboration site Github, and banks like Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and RBC have already been using the platform in a six-month pilot period. 

"This is really a culmination of the work we have spearheaded over the last few years," said Gabriele Columbro, the founder of FINOS.

As banks have become more technology-focused, the ethos of Silicon Valley has seeped into Wall Street. Last year at the conference, several executives from firms like BNY Mellon and Morgan Stanley stated that the competition isn't other banks, it's the collective challenges they face — and collaboration is the best way to tackle them.

"You don't need to fight for talent, you need to collaborate for talent," said Donald Raab, a managing director at BNY Mellon, at the conference last year.

Pierre De Belen, a Goldman engineer who was the head architect of the platform, said Goldman hopes that the "simplification" the platform can bring to many data processes will help engineers turn to "focus on real problems." Raphael mentioned that this is a part of the culture change within the firm — and finance more broadly — to make engineers feel valued "like first-class citizens." 

See more: Data scientists and engineers are leaving Amazon and Facebook for hedge funds. Here are the firms that are winning the battle for top tech talent.

The platform, while built for financial services firm, is not limited to the sector. Raphael sees applications for any firm with data silos and demanding regulators.

While companies with limited data engineering or coding chops might be intimidated by taking on such a challenge, De Belen said one of the critical things about Legend is that it doesn't require an engineering degree to use. It's how Goldman was able to access data "fast, easy, and safely" across teams without having to bring in data specialists, Raphael said.

"This is not only something for technologists, but also it's for the securities division and the operations division of banks," said Rob Underwood, chief development officer for FINOS. 

The platform is building off of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's Common Domain Model for sharing data, and Raphael hopes it can produce "more deliberate collaboration" among financial firms going forward. 

And Goldman plans to keep sharing, De Belen said.

"There's more phases to come to this," he said. 

SEE ALSO: Wall Street's war for tech talent is ending as rivals like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs embrace open-source code

SEE ALSO: Data scientists and engineers are leaving Amazon and Facebook for hedge funds. Here are the firms that are winning the battle for top tech talent.

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• Warren Buffett may have cut his Wells Fargo holdings because the bank's board went against his advice and hired a Wall Street chief as its new CEO, Bloomberg said.
• The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO told the Financial Times last year that Wells Fargo should hire someone from outside Wall Street or risk angering Congress. "That's just not smart," he said.
• Buffett's company has owned shares in the bank for more than 30 years, but it has slashed its position by more than 60% this year to a 17-year low.
• Investors will learn next month whether Berkshire has exited the position entirely.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Warren Buffett may have slashed his Wells Fargo stake to a 17-year low this year because the bank's directors ignored his advice and hired a Wall Street executive as their new CEO, according to Bloomberg.

The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO told the Financial Times last year that Wells Fargo, still reeling from its fake-accounts scandal, risked angering regulators if it hired its next boss from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, or another big bank.

"They just have to come from someplace [outside Wells] and they shouldn't come from Wall Street," Buffett said.

"There are plenty of good people to run it [from the Wall Street banks], but they are automatically going to draw the ire of a significant percentage of the Senate and the US House of Representatives, and that's just not smart," he added.

Read More: An ex-Wall Street chief strategist lambasts 3 'nonsensical narratives' he says are pushing stocks to dangerous heights — and warns that the current rally is unsustainable

However, Wells Fargo went against the guidance of its biggest shareholder and appointed Charles Scharf, who worked at JPMorgan before running Visa and later BNY Mellon, in September of last year. It also agreed to let its new chief executive run the California bank from New York.

"That's outrageous," Charlie Munger, Buffett's right-hand man and Berkshire's vice-chairman, said about the working arrangement in a Bloomberg interview earlier this year.

Selling Wells

Berkshire has been a Wells Fargo shareholder for more than 30 years, counting the bank among its five biggest holdings for most of that time. It owned more than 13% of the bank in 1994, and boasted more than 500 million shares worth over $27 billion in 2016.

However, it has cut its position by more than 60% this year to fewer than 140 million shares, giving it a roughly 3.3% position in the bank — its smallest percentage stake since 2003.

Buffett's company may have exited Wells Fargo entirely last quarter. Investors will find out when Berkshire's holdings as of 30 September are published in mid-November.

Read More: Buy these 7 unheralded stocks right now for near-term upside of at least 25% as growth accelerates to a new level, RBC says

Berkshire did sell a bunch of financial stocks in the second quarter including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Wells Fargo also remains subject to a regulatory cap on its assets. The bank posted a rare quarterly loss and cut its dividend this year, providing several alternative reasons why Berkshire may have pared its position.

On the other hand, Buffett's company plowed $2.1 billion into Bank of America stock over 12 straight trading days last quarter, suggesting he isn't bearish on the entire banking sector.

Join the conversation about this story »

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One could argue that Millennium Management's greatest advantage over other hedge funds is its ability to keep talented people in-house.

The massive hedge fund — which manages some $46 billion in assets across hundreds of teams — has a unique structure that lets portfolio managers operate in independent silos. The structure, which is grants PMs even more autonomy than fellow multi-strategy funds though with tight risk and loss parameters, helps billionaire founder Israel Englander convince staffers who might leave a more traditional fund to stay in-house — and recruit top talent into his firm. 

However, despite that and given he launched the firm over 30 years ago, Englander has sprouted a network of hedge funds.

According to a Business Insider review of LinkedIn, media reports, and industry sources, more than 70 former employees of Englander have launched their own funds across the globe. 

SUBSCRIBE TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE THE FULL LIST: Inside the alumni network of billionaire Israel Englander, the founder of $46 billion hedge-fund behemoth Millennium

SEE ALSO: Julian Robertson's Tiger Management is at the center of a quarter-trillion-dollar web linking billionaires, the Pharma Bro, and a 'Big Short' main character

SEE ALSO: Data scientists and engineers are leaving Amazon and Facebook for hedge funds. Here are the firms that are winning the battle for top tech talent.

SEE ALSO: The rise of Dan Sundheim: How a Wharton whiz kid became the LeBron James of investing, launched one of the hottest hedge funds on earth, and minted a billion-dollar fortune in the process

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Wall Street has put plenty of resources toward ensuring its technology remains safe and secure. But what happens if tech gets compromised before it even arrives?

That's the question Intel and Goldman Sachs are raising in a white paper published on Tuesday by the two firms. The paper, which also includes endorsements from companies like LG Electronics and Lenovo, focuses on supply-chain security. 

"What we're trying to do is provide transparency into what components were used to build the device that you're using," Tom Garrison, vice president of client security strategy and initiatives at Intel, told Business Insider. 

Having better insight into what was used to build out different tech products means that you're more likely to spot when something is amiss, he added.

"Understanding what firmware is running, what the state of the firmware is, and do you trust that device, is a fundamental question. And that really gets to the heart of when we're talking about supply-chain security," said Garrison, who was a co-author on the paper. 

Read more:Private-equity firms' cybersecurity defense has lagged. Here's what makes them attractive targets — and what they can do to protect themselves, according to experts.

Attention towards cybersecurity among financial firms has significantly increased over the past decade and it's now a top-of-mind issue for all executives, not just those in technology. 

But while plenty of focus is given to double-checking applications and educating employees on what emails to avoid, knowing the status of hardware when it is first delivered hasn't always received top billing.

However, having strong supply-chain security is critical, Garrison said, as understanding the state of devices when they arrive gives companies a secure foundation to build trust upon.

"If somebody were to put in a component, like sneak it into the circuit board of your device — whether it be a switch, a server, or any piece of technology, really — how would you know? How do you know if someone did that? And the reality is it's actually very technically complex to figure out. It's expensive, and it's not a simple answer," Michael Mattioli, a principal engineer in hardware engineering at Goldman Sachs, told Business Insider.

"The first step is obviously the transparency part. At least know. If you know, you can do something about it," added Mattioli, who is a co-author on the paper. 

With cyberattacks on the rise, supply-chain security is key

Breaches in supply chains can come in multiple forms. A chip in a piece of hardware could be modified — or replaced completely — to give bad actors a way in once it arrives and is installed at the target.

Incidents like that can occur when companies don't have insight into how their tech navigates its way through complex supply-chain networks.

"When you receive your PC, it has gone through lots of different hands from the time it left the factory, when it was manufactured through the channels, until it ultimately shows up on your front door or your dock. And so there's lots of different opportunity for a device to have been altered in some way," Garrison said. 

Wall Street, while always a target for hackers due to its proximity to money and important data, has been forced to be even more on guard in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic has introduced widespread remote work. According to a report from VMware Carbon Black in May, there was a 238% uptick in attacks against financial firms from February to April 2020. 

And it's not just about making sure your own environment is in order. With more client interactions taking place via digital channels, firms want to make sure those they do business with have taken steps to make sure their supply chains are secure as well. 

As a result, Goldman's Mattioli said, this is an issue everyone needs to consider and work to improve.

"Not one technology company or entity can fix this on their own," he said. "This requires everybody to get on board and say, 'Let's go and fix this.'"

Extended WFH means a focus on tracking the status of devices

While solving supply-chain security will be an industry effort, some firms are well positioned to take the lead. Intel's own supply chain is 16,000 suppliers across 60 countries, according to Garrison. 

The tech giant is already figuring out ways to lend its expertise. In December 2019, it rolled out Compute Lifecycle Assurance, which helps companies track products not just before they arrive to them, but throughout their entire existence at the firm.

The significance of tracking a device's status has become even more crucial this year.

Read more:Inside a 38,000-person remote work rollout at Goldman Sachs: sleepless nights, assembly lines, and an Amazon-like hub on a Manhattan trading floor

Many firms are welcoming employees back to their office after months spent working from home. With their return come devices that have spent extended periods of time outside of companies' networks. 

As a result, they need to ensure what's being brought back into their offices is secure and safe.

"It obviously adds a significant amount of complexity," Mattioli said. "There are definite checks and validations that you need to do to make sure that if stuff is coming back in it's up to date and trusted."

SEE ALSO: Inside a 38,000-person remote work rollout at Goldman Sachs: sleepless nights, assembly lines, and an Amazon-like hub on a Manhattan trading floor

SEE ALSO: Private-equity firms' cybersecurity defense has lagged. Here's what makes them attractive targets — and what they can do to protect themselves, according to experts.

SEE ALSO: Big Law firms are launching new groups dedicated to data privacy and biometrics. Here's why they're betting changes in regulations are creating a huge opportunity.

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A top executive at a key player in Wall Street's ecosystem is fully sold on the power of cloud computing.

Adena Friedman, Nasdaq's CEO, said the technology will play a pivotal role in the markets going forward, and has big plans for how it will continue to be implemented at exchanges. 

"We have to think about things like the cloud as being the future of the industry," Friedman said at Business Insider's Global Trends Festival on Monday.

Exchanges, with the massive amounts of data they deal in, make for an ideal customer for the public cloud. In recent years, public-cloud providers like Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services have had success pitching their services to exchange operators like CME Group, Nasdaq, and Deutsche Borse Group

Specifically, Nasdaq and Friedman have long been advocates for the power of the public cloud. In April, Nasdaq announced it would begin offering market data in real time via the public cloud. 

"More and more, I would say, workflows around the trade, are already going into cloud applications. And almost all of our services and applications outside the trade are on the cloud today," Friedman said. 

Moving trading to the cloud would be a big step

However, it's one thing to offer data, analysis, or other tools via the cloud. It's another to conduct actual trading there.

Trading still represents a core part of exchange operators' business. Moving those capabilities out of physical servers and onto the public cloud would represent a big step, not just for the exchanges themselves, but for Wall Street's overall acceptance of the tech. 

Still, Friedman believes the industry will eventually get there, and perhaps sooner than others might think.

"Do I think in 10 years, that many of the markets around the world, including Nasdaq, could and should be able to leverage cloud to operate their actual trading activities? The answer is yes, I do," she said. 

Friedman's belief in the future of the cloud holds weight due to the reach of Nasdaq's tech. Besides being a critical piece of US market structure, the exchange operator's technology is used by other markets. 

Therefore, Nasdaq's push for further cloud adoption could lead to wider usage at trading venues around the globe. 

Still, it will likely take time. Fractions of a second prove critical when it comes to matching trades, in addition to dealing with volatile market conditions. 

However, Friedman seems confident a solution will eventually be developed. 

"Really, it's a matter of that hyper low-latency, hyper resilient, high scalability technology. Can it be available in a hybrid cloud or in the full public cloud?" Friedman said. "We think over the next several years we will be partnering with the cloud providers to make that happen."

More BI Global Trends Festival coverage: 

• Mastercard's incoming CEO sees an opportunity and obligation to help SMBs and consumers through economic recovery. Here are some of his plans to help them recover.
• Cycles of disruption: AlixPartners' CEO lays out what has separated winners from losers in 2020

SEE ALSO: Google Cloud and AWS see winning over exchanges as key to pitching Wall Street holdouts on the public cloud

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Jon Gray still remembers what it was like when he was hired as an entry-level analyst at a seven-year-old private-equity shop in New York City in 1992.

"It was a tiny place ... I think there were 80 or 90 people," Gray said of Blackstone, a firm that would go on to become the world's largest alternative investment manager and, during Gray's time as head of global real estate, its largest property owner.

Fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania, Gray was interviewed by the Blackstone cofounders Stephen Schwarzman and Pete Peterson themselves. He couldn't have predicted that he would eventually be named Blackstone's president and chief operating officer in 2018, becoming one of the most powerful executives on Wall Street.

"For me, a kid from suburban Chicago, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this seems really exciting.' And it was obviously terrifying being interviewed," he recalled. "And by the way, starting was terrifying. I remember being so nervous having my first job here."

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Blackstone, which has more than $560 billion in assets under management, was ranked as the hardest interview among private-equity firms on Wall Street Oasis, a website that aggregates data submitted by users into reports about financial firms. 

Out of some 19,000 applicants for the company's 2020 first-year analyst class, just 94 people were hired — an acceptance rate of 0.5% — according to data that Blackstone shared with Business Insider. 

We spoke with Gray, headhunters who recruit for the firm, and Blackstone's global head of human resources to learn what it takes to stand out. From how to ace interviews to deals you need to be familiar with, here's what they told us.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO READ THE FULL STORY: Blackstone president Jon Gray reveals how to stand out to land a job at the ultra-competitive firm, which hired just 0.5% of applicants for 2020 analyst jobs

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Two powerful commodities executives at Morgan Stanley are out after engaging in the improper use of WhatsApp for communications — which goes against the bank's compliant communications policies — a source familiar with the situation told Business Insider.

Nancy King, global head of commodities, and Jay Rubenstein, head of commodities trading, are departing Morgan Stanley after utilizing WhatsApp. The messaging platform has haunted Wall Street for its end-to-end encryption, which can conceal the identities of individuals who are using the app.

Bloomberg previously reported the departures on Tuesday, citing SparkSpread as the original source of the information.

King did not immediately return a request for comment. Rubenstein declined to comment when reached by Business Insider. 

Read more:JPMorgan has pulled at least 3 bond traders off the trading floor as part of its 2nd investigation this year into chat messages

The departure ends a 34-year career at Morgan Stanley for King, who has been with the firm since 1986, and is considered one of the most powerful women on Wall Street. 

Crain's previously named her to its list of notable women in banking. A long-time veteran of the commodities team at Morgan Stanley, King served as the division's chief risk officer and head of flow oil liquids before heading up the entire group in 2015, according to Crain's. 

For Rubenstein, the departure concludes more than 13 years with the firm, where he first started as a Western US power trader in 2007, according to his LinkedIn page. His profile notes that he stepped into the role of global head of commodities trading in June 2019.

Communications compliance has confounded Wall Street institutions for years, as they try to prevent the use of unapproved tools like WhatsApp

While the two executives were using WhatsApp to communicate, it's unclear what precisely they were exchanging messages about. According to the Bloomberg report, the bank didn't find any wrongdoing, beyond the general use of WhatsApp. 

The source familiar with the situation told Business Insider that King and Rubenstein had displayed a "failure to supervise use of the communications within the commodities business," which led to their ultimate departures. Their departures are said to have been voluntary.

The source suggested that, while Morgan Stanley does not have plans at this time to cull other staff for breaking communications compliance, it could do so if future infractions come to light.

Even just stepping out of bounds on approved communication channels can jeopardize the careers of even the most senior executives. Indeed, this isn't the first time that Wall Street has cracked down on financiers for improper communications.

For traders, using WhatsApp as a communications method has confounded Wall Street banks because it makes communications far more opaque and difficult to trace than other tools, such as the Instant Bloomberg text chat feature, which archives communications.

In January JPMorgan Chase put credit trader Edward Koo on leave while looking into whether he may have breached JPMorgan's communications policies by utilizing WhatsApp, according to a Bloomberg report. He was later dismissed for creating a WhatsApp group and using it to talk market chatter with other employees, and bonuses for 11 other traders were cut, Bloomberg reported. 

Even in cases when firms don't suspect their traders of engaging in wrongdoing in their communications, the simple act of using an unapproved communications channel is enough to lead to a suspension or more serious enforcement.

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The world of private equity is full of high-stakes and pressure. But a job in PE also represents a trusted path to lucrative income and an attractive next step for young investment bankers.

As a result, jobs at PE firms represent some of the most sought after on The Street.

Traditionally, a small group of headhunters has held power over the process, being able to make or break candidates' prospects before they can even interview with PE firms themselves.

Business Insider built a searchable database of top private-equity headhunters at leading firms, so you know exactly whom to get in touch with to send your latest resumé.

We also spoke to Blackstone president Jon Gray, plus the firm's global head of HR and two of its outside recruiters, to figure out exactly what it takes to land at the prestigious PE firm, and what they're looking for from standout candidates in job interviews.

And as far as timing, we've also reported on the delay in the recruiting timeline as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Want to become a private-equity insider? We've got all the details.

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Apollo Global Management and its CEO, Leon Black, have agreed to use an external law firm to review Black's ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the investment management firm said on Wednesday.

It follows a New York Times report that said Black transferred at least $50 million in fees to Epstein, despite telling his investors in August 2019 that the pair's relationship was "limited" and that he only consulted Epstein on financial matters "from time to time."

Apollo's shares rose nearly 5% following the regulatory filings on Wednesday, having fallen steadily since the October 12 Times report.

In a regulatory filing, Apollo said Wednesday that the board's conflict committee had chosen law firm Dechert LLP to conduct a "thorough review" of the information that Black has brought forward about his relationship with Epstein.

The filing also stated that Black "looks forward to cooperating fully," and said an independent review is "in the best interests of Apollo."

Epstein, a former American financier, was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl in 2008. In 2019, he was arrested on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors. He died in his jail cell in August 2019, which was ruled a suicide.

In 2019, tax filings seen by Business Insider showed that Epstein was the sole director for Black's family foundation for more than a decade. Epstein stayed on even after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution, the filings showed.

And according to documents seen by the Times, Black paid tens of millions of dollars to Epstein for advice and services between 2012 and 2018.

Two people familiar with the matter told the paper that Black may have transferred up to $75 million to Epstein in total.

Stephanie Pillersdorf, a spokeswoman for Black, said October 12 that he "continues to be appalled by the conduct that led to the criminal charges" against Epstein, adding that Black "deeply regrets having any involvement" with Epstein. 

Apollo never did business with Epstein, she added.

SEE ALSO: Billionaire Leon Black paid at least $50 million to Jeffrey Epstein despite claiming the two men had a 'limited relationship,' according to an NYT report

SEE ALSO: Apollo, CEO Leon Black seek outside review on his ties with Epstein

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One of Wall Street's most talked-about trends is the wave of special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that have launched IPOs at such a torrid pace that they're on track to raise more than triple last year's totals.

So far this year, 138 SPACs, aka "blank-check firms," have raised at least $53.8 billion, according to the website SPAC Research. There shell companies now have at least $67 billion to spend on bringing other companies public, the data provider said.

There's an entire ecosystem of advisers, salespeople, and lawyers increasingly pitching blank-check companies to investment platforms and wealthy people. Asset managers like Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, and Capital Research are also increasingly participating in the market, lending an additional aura of respectability to what had once been considered a back corner of the financial markets.

As the market has gained more respectability, the names of the players driving its growth have changed. Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen people in the industry earlier this month to come up with a list of the market's most influential players. 

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO READ OUR FULL LIST: Meet 16 bankers, lawyers, and capital providers helping engineer a blank-check craze that's fast-tracking companies to public markets

SEE ALSO: UBS has started pitching its wealth management customers on 'blank-check' companies as the bank looks to tap into a SPAC frenzy

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Dogs barking. Doorbells ringing. Teachers teaching. Birds singing. Children laughing, playing, or crying. A new, and often, disruptive "surround sound" at home has emerged.  The place where people once sought solace after a long day in the office has fundamentally changed since earlier this year.  

But for some, that "surround sound" at home is nothing new; for them, it's always existed in the office. Adjusting to the new normal, for myself and my team, I was reminded of something one of our neurodiverse (estimated at 15% - 20% of the global population) teammates shared with me when we were in the office together before the pandemic:  

"I can hear every conversation of the people on my floor. I can hear the resistance of your shoes as they glide against the carpet. I can hear the high-pitched noise from the ceiling lights. I can hear all the pings on the computer and all the rings on the phone. I can hear the building shift and the wind outside the double-paned glass. I hear everything."

Just imagine trying to be able to focus with all of the distractions going on in the world around you. Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that refers to the breadth of human neurocognitive functioning. It includes people with autism, Asperger's syndrome, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and dyslexia, to name a few.  

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Current conditions have provided an opportunity for neuro-typical people to have greater understanding of and empathy for neurodiverse colleagues. Everyone has heard the complaints about constant distractions at home, factors that neurodiverse colleagues often face in typical environments. Using this knowledge, we can influence work environments, understand how our neurodiverse employees can thrive, and recognize the advantage of a neurodiverse team.

Diversity and inclusion is fundamental to all that we do, and neurodiversity is an important advantage in the cybersecurity industry. Why? In cybersecurity, we need out-of-the-box thinking, pattern recognition, idea generation, problem solving, and innovation. These hard-to-find skills can exist within those who are neurodiverse. These critical skills and unique ways of thinking empower innovation in the cyber world. 

So, here are a few ways we can understand the neurodiverse advantage and consider environments that set everyone up for success.

Encourage neurodiverse people to explore technology/cyber careers and hire them

In my industry, we are currently facing a severe and sobering reality — 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs could go unfilled worldwide by 2021. 

In order to prevent that, we need to be open to the deepest talent pool. Understanding more about neurodiverse candidates will help uncover where biases might exist and how you can work to eradicate those. Some neurodiverse candidates may not follow common social protocols (like making eye contact) or may not have typical qualifications, so it's important to listen, learn, and look beyond a standard set of criteria.   

Understand the neurodiverse advantage

Hiring neurodiverse workers is mutually beneficial. It provides an opportunity for individuals to demonstrate their unique talents and helps companies solve evolving threats often faster than ever before. 

Neurodiverse individuals are often technologically-inclined and able to spot patterns in large data sets quickly. They have strong skills in analytics, information processing, and mathematics, all of which are critical for the cybersecurity workforce. Also, cognitively diverse teams solve problems faster, a critical factor when combatting cyber threats.

As one of our teammates David Andersen, a senior cybersecurity scientist with Bank of America, explained, "Being diagnosed as both ADHD and having mild autism, I find a certain belonging at Bank of America that I have not felt with other types of work. The desire to bring order to chaos, to solve problems, and to give a home to the hypothetical is rewarding."  

Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace must be an intentional act

Rather than thinking of people that are neurodiverse as differently abled or special needs, think of them as people that need more support.

When introducing people that are neurodiverse into the workplace it requires preparation, planning, and thoughtful consideration. Ensure that there are places in your building that are designed to support their unique requirements. This includes how seats are configured, how their workstations are set up, and use of common areas like conference rooms.  

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One of the best pieces of advice I've received from a teammate is to send written information in advance of a meeting. That allows people that process differently to be prepared. Just that one change in my routines has led to richer discussions and better insights. 

The key is to remember that if you meet people that are neurodiverse on their terms it unlocks the brilliance of their capabilities and you and your larger team will benefit. 

Recognize neurodiversity is one way to strengthen teams 

A strong team is built on a foundation of support, cohesion, creativity, and efficiency. True teamwork means supporting individual talents, recognizing where people excel, and identifying where they work best.

Our teammate David explained it well by saying, "The cohesiveness of the team working on a common mission lets me know I am not bearing a burden alone. A defeatist attitude doesn't work in cybersecurity and being on the spectrum, I want to be part of a supportive team focused on finding solutions."

Having people on your team who approach and solve problems differently is key. Everyone should welcome the visual processing skills and pattern recognition that people with dyslexia may have or rely on the strong memory or attention to detail some with Asperger's syndrome have. We should bring forward the creative thoughts often recognized in those with ADHD to solve the greatest challenges.

A successful cybersecurity team utilizes the combination of individual strengths and ways of thinking to work toward the common goal of protecting their company, customer, and employee data.  

Let the new "surround sound" of working from home teach us more about the neurodiverse experience.  Recognizing and utilizing the collective brain power of all those around us will lead to trailblazing ideas.  

Craig Froelich is chief information security officer for Bank of America. He leads a team of experts in 13 countries dedicated to protecting the money and information of the company's individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations. The Global Information Security (GIS) team provides defenses for current and future threats within the company and partners closely with industry and government associations to keep the sector secure.  He has long supported programs that narrow the gender gap in technology, serving as an executive sponsor for Girls Who Code and participating in the company's employee networks, and advocacy groups such as Women in Technology & Operations.

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• New York's securities industry notched its largest first-half profit since 2009 due to sharp increases in trading and underwriting activity, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a Thursday report.
• Pretax profits through the first six months of the year surged 82% to $27.6 billion. Underwriting revenues hit a record of $10.4 billion in the second quarter.
• The first-half performance suggests the securities industry "will be markedly profitable for the year, barring any further unforeseen events," DiNapoli said.
• Still, Wall Street's success can't offset all of the lingering damage on Main Street, the comptroller said, adding that Congress should quickly pass new fiscal stimulus.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

New York's securities industry posted its largest first-half profit since 2009 on the back of Federal Reserve easing and unprecedented fiscal stimulus.

Pretax profits over the first six months of 2020 surged 82% from the year-ago period to $27.6 billion, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a Thursday report. The sum nearly surpassed the industry's entire 2019 profit, and was mainly driven by increased trading and underwriting activity. Near-zero interest rates also aided firms, according to the report.

The government's policy response to the coronavirus spurred the highest average daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange since 2008, DiNapoli said. Commission and trading income leaped 22% for NYSE member firms to a first-half total of $28.8 billion.

Underwriting revenues totaled $10.7 billion in the second quarter, the strongest quarterly performance on record and up 40% from the year-ago period. In all, first-half underwriting revenues reached $17.3 billion.

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New York City hasn't since April updated its revenue forecast, which calls for a $6.4 billion loss this year. The first-half performance suggests the securities industry "will be markedly profitable for the year, barring any further unforeseen events," DiNapoli said.

The comptroller joined the many calls for fresh fiscal stimulus, saying that "Wall Street's growth can only be sustained if there is a broad economic recovery." The securities industry's profits provided "an outsized source of revenue" for the state and city governments, DiNapoli said in a statement. Yet Wall Street's gains can't permanently offset the economist damage lingering on Main Street, he added.

Wall Street largely agrees. Bank executives repeatedly urged Congress to pass new stimulus in recent earnings calls. Fresh aid "would move us further" in the economic recovery, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said.

"We'll probably see delinquencies tick up" if businesses continue without new fiscal support, JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Piepszak said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats and the White House are "just about there" on reaching a stimulus compromise. Still, with the election looming and Senate Republicans opposing the measure's size, hurdles to passing new aid remain.

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• Hong Kong's financial regulator slapped Goldman Sachs with a $350 million fine on Thursday for its involvement in the 1MDB scandal.
• The bank's "serious lapses" and deficiencies in management contributed to the misappropriation of $2.6 billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund, the Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement.
• The fine is the largest ever imposed by the SFC, and marks the latest in a string of hefty settlement charges for the bank.
• Goldman agreed to pay Malaysia $3.9 billion in July to settle investigations, and is expected to settle with the US Justice Department soon for more than $2 billion.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Hong Kong's markets regulator fined Goldman Sachs $350 million on Thursday for the bank's role in the 1MDB scandal.

Goldman's "serious lapses and deficiencies in its management supervisory, risk, compliance, and anti-money laundering controls" contributed to the misappropriation of $2.6 billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund, the Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement. The bank also allowed 1MDB's bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 to take place despite "numerous red flags" surrounding the deals, it said.

The $350 million fine is the largest ever imposed by the regulator, but follows much larger fines elsewhere. Goldman agreed to pay Malaysia $3.9 billion in July to settle the country's criminal probe. The settlement was spread across a $2.5 billion cash fine and the guaranteed recovery of $1.4 billion in asset proceeds.

The bank is also set to reach a settlement with the US Justice Department that's expected to cost more than $2 billion, according to a Monday Bloomberg report.

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The various probes relate to Goldman Sachs' role in helping the Malaysian fund raise $6.5 billion through three bond offerings. US authorities claim much of the cash raised was stolen by Malaysian government officials and two Goldman bankers. Goldman netted roughly $600 million in fees through the offerings.

Increased legal provisions tied to the bank's settlement with Malaysia slashed its second-quarter profit to $373 million from $2.4 billion. The earnings update suggests future reports could see downward pressure from more recent and upcoming fines.

Still, the recent settlements bring Goldman closer to wrapping up a period of significant uncertainty for its own business and its shareholders.

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