The mega-money in Moscow

Can M&A bankers really earn more in Moscow?

Last week we said derivatives professionals were hot in Mockbá. This week, it seems M&A bankers are all the rage. Bloomberg's running a story today claiming that Russia's top bankers are on packages worth $7m (3.5m), double the meagre payouts of their Wall Street colleagues.

This isn't the first time Moscow's finest have attracted attention. Back in the dark days of 2003, Renaissance Capital was rumoured to have hired Chris Baxter from Merrill Lynch on a package worth $4m over two years. Meanwhile, the Times ran a story last summer claiming Russia's banks were offering even relatively junior bankers bonuses of 420k.

Headhunters warn not to get carried away with such tales of Eastern largesse. "This is only true for the heads of investment banking and corporate finance," says Olga Selivanova, a Russian-focused consultant at search firm Morgan Hunt. "There are only four or five people making this sort of money [$7m]."

Taru Oksman-Ison, a partner at search firm Principal Search, is similarly disparaging. "It's such a narrow market that half-a-dozen people get silly money, but the rest are not going to get much more than in New York or London."

However, Moscow is still an alluring option for VP-level corporate financiers who speak Russian, says Oksman-Ison: "It's a great place to get responsibility early and to the be in the middle of some of today's most exciting transaction flows."