Results to our bonus survey suggest many bankers have become divorced from reality
Despite what are evidently very challenging market conditions, the threat of redundancy and rumours of zero bonuses in the front office, people working in financial services are optimistic! They expect to be paid more for 2011! Quite a few of them also think salaries will increase again in 2012.
Such are the results to our annual bonus expectations survey.
Completed by 533 financial services professionals in the UK (61% of whom were in the front office), it reveals that 46% of them expect a higher bonus this year than last. A mere 28% expect their bonus to shrink.
Continuing the optimistic theme, 61% expect their 2011 bonus to be imparted totally in cash. Just 20% expect more than 25% of their bonus to be deferred. And 44% think their salary will increase again in 2012 (only 2% suspect it might fall).
There is, however, evidence of realism when the time horizon is stretched. In the next three years, 49% of people think their bonus will decline, mostly due to 'market conditions.'
However bullishly delusional financial services are about their pay for this year, expectations have at least been modified since 2010. When we conducted the same survey 12 months ago, 62% of respondents expected a higher bonus. Next year, only a third may expect to be paid more.
