eFinancialCareers

Forget layoffs, write-downs and diminishing profits, the average banker is confident of a nearly 9% increase in bonus compared to last year. At least this is the finding of a survey by recruitment firm Joslin Rowe. Some 500 financial services professionals (most of them likely to be in the back and middle office, given this is JR’s speciality) told the company they expected bonuses to be up 8.9% on last year. Tara... Read more

Headhunters Armstrong International and Options Group have both now unveiled their forecasts for 2007 bonuses. They’re not entirely in agreement. The top line …is that bonuses will be down, down, down. According to Armstrong’s report (which we haven’t actually seen, but which is plastered all over the press this morning), the average banker will see his/her payout decline 20%. It predicts a higher proportion will be in shares, with UBS now said... Read more

Rumours are flying thick and fast about the likely structure of bonuses at UBS this year. UBS has already officially indicated that it will be paying a higher proportion of bonuses in stock after reporting its first quarterly loss for half a decade and predicting a full year loss for its securities unit. More colour is emerging on what this 'higher proportion of stock' might look like. According to one headhunter,... Read more

Average bonuses at Deutsche Bank look set to fall 22%; bonuses at UBS are liable to decline 10%; and those at Credit Suisse should slip 3.4%. Results from the three European banks that revealed their 3Q performance this week show all are set to reduce average bonus payouts for investment bankers this year compared to last. Compensation and benefits expenditure for their investment banking divisions for the year to date, averaged over... Read more

Lower-level private equity professionals have seen sharp pay increases, but are still missing out on the most lucrative carried interest incentives. The 2007 Private Equity Analyst-Holt Compensation Study reveals junior private equity pros – principal, associate, senior associate and analyst – have seen the juiciest pay hikes this year. The median pay rise was 29.2% at these levels, taking the average package to $215k (£103k) including bonus. But while salaries and bonuses... Read more

Here’s a scary thought for Hallowe'en: not only will bonuses be down, more of them will be paid in stock. DealBook reports that UBS has every intention of upping the stock element of bonuses after the Swiss bank reported a CHF830m ($712m) 3Q loss and plummeting profits for the first nine months of the year. Rumour has it that Deutsche, which today revealed a 40% cut in 3Q compensation expenditure, is considering... Read more

Private bankers have done well this year. Whether they’ll see any money as a result of their efforts is another question. UBS’s results underscore the extent to which private bankers are inhabiting a warmer and friendlier planet than their investment banking colleagues. While UBS’s investment bank lost a mammoth CHF3.7bn in 3Q07, the private bank reeled in CHF$2.4bn. According to research firm Creditsights, the Swiss bank’s global wealth management and business... Read more

Redundancies are imminent, everyone’s afraid for their jobs, and along comes a throng of new hires on guaranteed bonuses. Guaranteed bonuses mean precisely that – recipients are guaranteed the bonus specified in their contract regardless of the situation. “You can’t be laid off,” explains Adam Jama of search firm Napier Scott. “If they get rid of you, you will still get your guaranteed bonus – if you’ve been promised $1m, you... Read more

A recent survey suggests credit professionals are expecting bonuses to rise by an average of 10% this year. Pigs, as they say, will fly. The survey, of 236 credit types engaged in everything from prop trading to quantitative analysis, strategy, sales and research, found that around 10% expect 2007 bonuses to be double last year’s and around 17% expect bonuses to rise by between 75% and 100%. On balance, 40% expect bonuses... Read more

ABN AMRO’s historic generosity with stock and options means its bankers stand to do rather well out of the sale to RBS. “ABN AMRO had a habit of paying a ridiculously high proportion of bonuses as restricted stock or options,” says one headhunter. “In some cases it could be as high as 50%. Those people will be sitting on healthy gains following the sale of the wholesale bank to RBS.” Royal Bank... Read more

Smaller firms may be more generous when it comes to paying off staff who’ve been unceremoniously dumped. Philip Landau, partner at London law firm Landau Zeffertt Weir, says he’s come across two banks in the past week which are letting go of staff before bonuses are paid, and compensating them with a bonus pro-rated for the first 10 months of the year. Common practice in the banking industry is to pay a... Read more

The Tories want to levy a £25k flat tax on non-domiciled foreigners living in the UK. Will it really make any difference to bankers? Not according to the head of recruitment at one US house in London. “This is exactly the same as the chancellor whacking a £400 per year environmental tax on £60k Chelsea tractors [four wheel drive vehicles],” he says. “It will make a difference to the Revenue’s coffers,... Read more