Deal toys biz booms as M&A on Wall Street surges

Good morning and welcome to Insider Finance. I'm Dan DeFrancesco, and here's what's on the agenda today:

• Get an inside look at the makers of 'deal toys' that have seen business skyrocket in 2021 thanks to increased M&A.
• Challenger bank HMBradley is growing so fast it needs to add more partner banks to keep up with deposits.
• Two Black women executives on Wall Street detail microaggressions they've faced.
• Vestwell, a fintech focused on disrupting employee retirement programs, just nabbed $70 million from some of Wall Street's most elite firms.

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Like the newsletter? Hate the newsletter? Feel free to drop me a line at ddefrancesco@businessinsider.com or on Twitter @DanDeFrancesco.

Inside a wild year for Wall Street's 'deal toy' makers: Business is rebounding as M&A jumps but raw materials like crystal are tough to find

Business is booming for makers of deal toy, who create awards for Wall Street transactions.

Here's a peak inside what has been a wild year.

Challenger bank HMBradley grew too fast. Now it's looking for new bank partners as it pushes into mortgages and auto loans.

Challenger bank HMBradley switched to invite-only after it hit $375 million in deposits as it looks to add more bank partners. Read more here.

Black women who manage billions of dollars break down the microaggressions they've faced while excelling in highly demanding jobs

Dekia Scott, CIO of Southern Company, and Tina Byles Williams, CEO, CIO, and founder of Xponance, revealed microaggressions they've faced in a predominantly white, male field. Here's what they said.

Vestwell just nabbed $70 million from Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and others as it looks to disrupt employee retirement programs

Vestwell provides back-end tech connecting financial institutions and workplace savings programs. See more here.

Here's the 12-page pitch deck e-commerce banking startup Novo used to raise its $40 million Series A

Novo, a small-business banking startup, just raised a $40.7 million Series A led by Valar Ventures. Check out the pitch deck it used.

Inside WeWork's IPO meltdown: How Adam Neumann and Wall Street's chaotic partnership obliterated $40 billion in value

Read an adaptation from Wall Street Journal reporters Maureen Farrell and Eliot Brown's new book, "The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion." Find out more here.

Salary comparison tool

Insider has created a searchable database of the last three years of salary disclosures, collected from the USCIS website, curated to a range of more than 250 companies that Insider reporters regularly cover. Check out the searchable database here.

Odd lots:

A Berlin startup veteran who wants to take over a medium-sized company by his mid-30s shares how he'll finance a deal and what criteria he looks for (Insider)

REVEALED: This pitch deck shows how Goldman Sachs projected WeWork would become a $1 trillion company (Insider)

Square launches small business banking (Reuters)

The biggest US health insurer has a $600 million VC arm that places bets on the future of healthcare. Here are Optum Ventures' 18 biggest investments, including startups reinventing home care and pharmacies. (Insider)

A Fidelity fund says its shares in scooter company Bird are worth half of what they were November. Here's why. (Insider)

Boutique Stifel follows Wall Street rivals with $100,000 salary for juniors (Financial News)

Morgan Stanley Back-to-Office Call Puts Law Firms in Tough Spot (Bloomberg)

Bankers Need 72-Hour Week to Master Job, $4 Trillion Wealth Manager Says (Bloomberg)