More salary increases coming at US banks; still no salary increase at HSBC
Remember a few weeks ago? Remember everyone thought HSBC was going to finally increase salaries in its investment bank? HSBC investment bankers are still waiting.
On the hand, we understand large US banks are readying another salary hike for their highest earners.
HSBC isn't commenting on its pay policy. However, insiders say that although there was some talk about salaries being increased a few weeks ago, all that seems to have fallen by the wayside following the replacement of Geoghegan by Gulliver and Gulliver by Robin Phillips and Samir Asaf as heads of the investment bank.
Headhunters say HSBC is unlikely to increase its salaries until at least 2011 now: "They know that no one's going to leave anyway at this time of the year," says one.
600k salaries at US banks
While HSBC dithers, big US banks such as Goldman, Morgan Stanley, BAML and JPMorgan are said to be contemplating additional selective increases for people on total comp of 1m+.
"Last year, salaries went up to 350-400k. Now we're seeing a small number of US banks increasing them again to 500-600k," says one pay consultant.
The FSA's revised compensation code said that regulatory rules which mandate bonus deferrals and prevent multi-year guarantees won't apply when someone earns less than 500k in total compensation and less than a third of their total comp is paid in bonus. Anyone following this formula will be able to receive their 500k in cash, rather than deferred over three years.
As a result, it makes sense for banks to increase salaries to 333k for anyone earning ~500k in total. Expect mid-ranking salary hikes to follow.
