The healthiest people in finance aren’t bankers, or even traders
Who are the healthiest (and unhealthiest) people in finance? It’s definitely not M&A banker Patrick Bateman and his 1,000 crunches – if anything, a real life Bateman would be among the least healthy of his colleagues. So who is it?
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Our 2025 Compensation and Lifestyle report, based on our survey of over 2,500 respondents in the industry, shed some light on where exactly you can find the healthiest (or the least unhealthy) people in finance. We surveyed financial services professionals worldwide, in all corners and seniorities of the industry.
The healthiest people in banking were, by some margin, in compliance. That shouldn’t be surprising; they also had some of the lowest working hours in the industry, and decent pay per hour as a consequence (comparable to harder-working commodities sales & trading professionals).
Compliance respondents to our survey felt generally positive. The average mental health score in compliance – 7.9 – was particularly high, with one respondent in the sector working in Hong Kong for HSBC, saying that he was “focusing on wellness”, as well as exercising more. He rated his physical health an 8/10 and his mental health a 9/10.
The least healthy bankers were, again by some margin, those in M&A. Physical health in the sector was particularly poor, with respondents rating theirs a 6.5 on average. That shouldn’t be surprising – M&A banking is a brutal affair, with respondents to our survey saying they worked for 68 hours a week on average, much higher than anyone else. In more extreme cases, 100-hour or even 120-hour work weeks are not unheard of.
Respondents were expectedly despondent. One London Standard Chartered M&A director gave his total score a 5/10 due to “stress”, while working 60 hours a week. Another London professional, a VP, said that his physical health was deteriorating, and market uncertainty meant that it was “hard to do business”.
One surprise in our survey was definitely equity capital markets people, who reported average physical health scores of 7.8, some of the highest. This makes sense, as they also reported lower working hours than their investment banking peers – and several ECM respondents to our survey said that they had started working more on their health in the past year. Presumably with all their free time.
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