Bonuses boost pay for ABS structurers
At managing director level, staff structuring products for clients received average salaries of 120,000 (€167,000) and bonuses of 450,000. Their counterparts devising products on behalf of their employers earned the same salary but a slightly lower bonus of 380,000.
Keith De Souza, a consultant at Mantaray, says total packages were 20% to 25% lower than in 2001 largely because asset-backed securities teams had to subsidise staff in other sectors that performed less strongly.
De Souza says: "In 2003, bonuses will probably be the same as 2002, or slightly bigger for some people. Banks are becoming leaner with fewer unproductive people who need subsidising."
The survey polled scores of London-based bankers. De Souza says pay in continental Europe tended to be 40% lower than in London, partly because much of the sophisticated and high-volume work in asset-backed securities was based in the UK.
At junior levels, associates in structuring products for clients were paid bonuses of 70,000 on top of salaries of 60,000 while those handling work for their own banks received significantly less - bonuses of 45,000 and salaries of 50,000. De Souza says work for clients tended to be better paid to take account of the extra skills needed to get them on board.
