Equity researchers lose out in pay deal

Pay forecasts from search firms Mantaray and Longbridge International suggest that vice-presidents in credit research will receive packages worth between 70,000 (€109,200) and 180,000 this year.

Conversely, Longbridge says equity researchers will be lucky to receive more than 120,000.

Bonuses are to blame. While credit researchers have had a good year, particularly in structured product areas such as asset-backed securitisation and collateralised debt obligations, many equities analysts have suffered.

Mantaray forecasts bonuses for vice-presidents in European investment grade credit research of between 30% and 100% for 2002. Base salaries are between 80,000 and 90,000, said Deborah Dor, managing director.

Oliver Dent, a consultant in equities recruitment at Longbridge, says base salaries for equities researchers are similar, but many will be lucky to receive bonuses at all. He says: "The top two or three will still get paid well. Run-of-the-mill analysts will be paid much less. Most have been made redundant already."

Credit research could not be more different, even though search firms predict that bonuses will be lower than last year.

Clare Harris, a fixed income consultant at Longbridge, says demand for structured product researchers has been exceeding supply as few people have much experience in the sector.