Associated Press reports that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon confirmed this week that he will not take advantage of the compensation constraints placed on rivals Bank of America and Citi by US pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to tempt away top executives.

Speaking at a financial conference in New York Tuesday, Dimon said: 'I morally have an issue with people going against these companies that are hamstrung and making it worse....It would be wrong for us to say, 'Let's go hire their best people'. I think that would be a terrible thing to do, so we're not going to do that'.

In the meantime, Reuters reports that Dimon is looking to beef up his financial advisor population by hiring around 650 of the very best. The news agency quotes JPMorgan's boss saying: 'If you're really good, call JPMorgan up and we'll be happy to hire you'.

But don't expect top dollar if you are working as a broker over at UBS. New North American brokerage head Bob McCann told Bloomberg TV this week: 'The days of UBS..(being) the high bid in the market....it's over. I don't want people working with me (because) the only reason ....(is) we are the high bid in the market'. McCann added that UBS would, however, pay people 'fairly'. He also said Tuesday that he didn't think that UBS would revive the PaineWebber name, as 'I think the UBS brand is much richer and broader'.

And Reuters reports that UBS is to restructure its pay policy again, in order 'to meet regulatory demands in Switzerland and internationally'. The news agency quotes from an internal memo that 'at UBS, the ratio of variable to fixed compensation was in some cases particularly high. Fixed salaries at UBS should, in the future, be high enough that the variable portion can be adjusted from year to year'. The bank is apparently viewing 2009 as a 'transitional' year for compensation, and plans to have a new pay system in place once the firm has returned to profitability (which should hopefully be next year).

Finally. rumors are also circulating that all may not be well in the land of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage joint venture. There are gripes about the 2009 bonus pool, and concerns about the differing firm cultures. On legacy Morgan Stanley employee told Here Is The City: 'The Smith Barney employees feel, and act, like they are the smartest people in the world. But when you analyze their business unit, and see how inefficiently it is run, you quickly realise that there are problems'.

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