Broke at BNP?
BNP Paribas is hiring lots of people. Recruiters say it would help if it paid existing staff more first.
"French banks pay a lot less, particularly on the distribution side," says Jason Kennedy, managing partner of search firm Kennedy Associates. "Base salaries in areas like equity derivatives distribution are pretty similar to US banks, but bonuses are lower - total comp is anything from 20% to 35% less."
"French banks pay their top equity derivatives producers well, but their juniors are paid relatively badly compared to the Street," confirms Andrew Littlestone, a consultant at search firm Kinsey Allen: "Total comp at the junior end can be anything from 30% to 50% down."
It doesn't sound promising, particularly given the fact that BNP is on a hiring spree. Financial News reports that the bank is intent on adding 700 new front-office hires before the end of the year, including 200 equity derivatives pros.
French firms' parsimony is unusual in an industry where poor pay is typically a signal to get out. But recruiters say jobs for life and the strength of equity derivatives platforms at the likes of BNP and Société Générale serve as a major incentive to stick around.
"People at French banks have tremendous loyalty," says one. "They're taken on in Paris and trained up before being sent to London and New York, where they stay in the same job for decades. They realise that the franchise is great and it would be hard to replicate the same flow of business elsewhere."
But this creates problems when French houses hire in at senior levels. "When they recruit outsiders they have to pay market rates," says the headhunter. "All those people who've been slogging away for the past ten years suddenly realise they're on lower packages than the new hires."
Given that BNP's expected to add fully functional producers rather training up juniors, its hiring intentions could prove more expensive than anticipated.
