Hiya! It’s Dan DeFrancesco once again reporting for duty from NYC.

While 2022 wasn’t a banner year for banks, it also wasn’t a complete disaster.

While crypto and tech companies are heading into 2023 licking their wounds (or in some cases, not making it to next year at all), banks have made it through the year largely unscathed. 

Of course, things didn’t all go according to plan. The M&A market was all but dead by springtime, banks efforts to get people back in the office didn’t always go over well, and at least one bank CEO acknowledged defeat in a key part of his strategy.

We wrapped up all our best reporting on the year that was in banking. Check them all out below.

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Will Nance, Neena Bitritto-Garg, Corinne Blanchard, and Michael Elias

Goldman Sachs; Citi; Cowen; Deutsche Bank; Sean Gladwell/Getty; Savanna Durr/Insider

1. Wall Street takes a page out of Big Brother’s book. At Goldman Sachs ID swipes were tracked. Bank of America’s call for bankers to return was more of an unwritten rule. But at JPMorgan, getting people to come to the office led to a tool being built that allowed the bank to track everything its employees do at work. Needless to say, some weren’t happy. Seven current and former employees told us why JPM’s RTO policy was leading them to consider leaving.   

2. Goldman Sachs doesn’t want to be your friendly, neighborhood bank anymore. The concept of Goldman, which catered to the wealthiest people, launching a bank for normal folks seemed exciting. But by 2022 the wheels were starting to fall off on CEO David Solomon’s consumer ambitions, as first reported by Insider. And when restructuring, which Insider also predicted, was finally confirmed this fall, we mapped out the executives who saw their stock rise, and fall, with the switch. Meanwhile, Solomon has announced the bank is working on a fresh round of job cuts that will take place in the first half of January, as per Bloomberg.  

3. Small bank doesn’t mean small paycheck. Young bankers seem to really love working at boutique investment banks. So we mapped out how much you can expect to get paid as an analyst, associate, and VP at some of the top boutiques on the Street. 

4. The dealmakers to the dealmakers. When private-equity firms look to buy a company, these are the bankers they call. We profiled the 10 bankers who call PE firms like Apollo and Thoma Bravo clients.

5. Wells puts the brakes on mortgages. Home lending was long a cornerstone of Wells Fargo’s business. But CEO Charlie Scharf indicated this summer the bank would reconsider its position and that the days of being a profit center for the bank were “long gone.” Here’s some more intel on why Wells cooled on mortgages. 

6. Goldman’s healthcare team takes a hit. The dealmaking environment was largely non-existent for most of the year, but some bankers were still kept busy. This summer, a handful of Goldman analysts and associates on the bank’s healthcare team were so fed up with their hours they walked. Here’s why. 

7. But that’s not to say everyone was hard at work. As dealmaking dried up, some young bankers took the opportunity to kick back and relax while they could. One TMT investment-banking analyst told us what they were doing with their new freedom. 

8. The top bankers pulling off deals in the entertainment and media space. From working with traditional Hollywood players to helping new streamers navigate the space, these are the top nine dealmakers helping orchestrate negotiations in Tinseltown. 

9. Wells tightens up its private bank. This fall, Wells Fargo made the decision to move tens of thousands of accounts out of its private bank that had under $5 million. We got a hold of the script they gave advisors to notify clients. 

10. These equity research analysts are worth keeping an eye on. We identified up-and-coming 16 analysts who were 35 and under and covered everything from cannabis to clean energy. Check out our rising stars of equity research.

Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.