FICC pay is falling, but it still pays the biggest bonuses

The fixed income currencies and commodities division (FICC) has long paid bigger bonuses than the investment banking division, but after a dismal year in 2011, they declined by between 25-40%. Despite this, figures from our salary and compensation survey suggest that it’s still possible to earn bigger bonuses on average here than other areas of investment banking.

Bonuses in the FICC divisions averaged at around 91% of base salary, with commodities (134%) the best paying sector within this, according to our research. In equities sales, trading and research roles, meanwhile, bonuses averaged just 45% of base pay.

Bonuses for debt capital markets bankers also featured highly in the sector rankings, at 82% of salary, while equity capital markets (29%) and M&A (53%) bonuses reflect a difficult year.

Here are the sector figures in full:

Source: eFinancialCareers UK salary and bonus survey