Investment banking analysts at SocGen received a big pay rise

Want to get paid as an analyst in an investment bank? Try SocGen. The French bank is understood to have hiked salaries for juniors in its investment banking division (IBD) quite dramatically.

Insiders said SocGen hiked salaries for its first year analysts in London to £55k ($75k), for analyst twos to £65k ($88k) and for analyst threes to £75k ($102k).

SocGen's salaries are now said to be substantially higher than rival banks'. Two months ago, recruitment firm Dartmouth Partners put London analysts' salaries between £50k and £60k as per the chart below.

SocGen didn't immediately comment on the alleged pay rise, which is understood to have happened around two months ago.

There are suggestions that rival French bank BNP Paribas has hiked some analyst salaries too, although analysts we spoke to there said their pay was still £50k in year one and £55k in year two.

The apparent salary hike comes as IBD recruiters say they're incredibly busy. Logan Naidu, CEO of Dartmouth Partners, said demand for analysts and associates is greater than it's been for a decade. "A lot of analysts are trading up - from tier three to tier two banks and from tier two to tier one banks. In turn, banks themselves are losing a lot of juniors to private equity funds which have amassed a lot of dry powder."

In the context, it seems French banks are trying to retain their staff by locking them in with higher pay.