The bankers with the longest hours in the world work for a French bank
Bankers are a hard-working bunch. They famously revolted at Goldman Sachs back in 2021 on account of their 103-hour weeks, in fact – and last year had their hours capped to a generous 80 per week at JPMorgan (barring emergencies).
Who is your Ideal Employer in finance? 💥 Answer our survey for a chance to win $1k
Our ’24 - ’25 Compensation & Lifestyle Report suggests that those brutal hours are not universal. Of the 2,500 respondents to our survey, across the financial services sector, the average working week was 49 hours long. In the sell-side (banking alone), it was 53 hours long.
Average working hours do not vary much by bank, with one exception – BNP Paribas. Employees at the French bank, which is typically held up as a shining star of European-style work-life-balance, worked nearly 59 hours a week on average in 2024. This includes back- and middle-office employees, and is therefore higher than expected. It also runs counter to the perception that French banks are comparatively easy places to work.
The most relaxed working hours – 49.8 hours per week, on average – were to be found at British bank NatWest. NatWest was nationalised by the British government in 2008. It was only in March of 2025 that the British state stopped being the bank’s largest shareholder. As such, employees there have been government employees, so the leniency may seem expected.
Aside from BNP and NatWest, there was little divergence in working hours elsewhere. One surprise, however, was Santander. Santander has big ambitions and has hired dozens of bankers from Credit Suisse in an effort to become a major player in investment banking. Nonetheless, it seems a comparatively relaxed place to work, possibly due to its large retail network.
Boutiques had higher average working hours than any bank on the list. This can be explained in part by their composition: they are more heavily weighted towards front-office revenue-generating staff, which are known to have longer working hours than the rest of a bank.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
