BofA’s people were twice as happy with their pay as UBS’ last year
It’s well known that no one in banking is happy with their pay, no matter how many zeroes you add to the end of their paycheck. But people at some banks were happier than others.
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Our 2024 salary and bonus report sheds some light on who exactly was unhappiest. Our report was based on the 6,000 responses we received to our survey which ran earlier this year. We queried financial services professionals in all corners of the industry, all corners of the world, and all levels of seniority.
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Respondents happiest with their pay last year worked for Santander. The Spanish bank hired heavily from Credit Suisse and set aside $250m to “turbocharge” the expansion of its investment bank in January 2023, at a time when many rivals were announcing job cuts and resizing. A macro sales & trading director at the Spanish bank’s New York office told us that “relative to folks at peer banks, working hours and culture-to-pay-ratio is fair.”
Although American banks have a reputation for paying well (and European banks have a reputation of offering better work-life-balance), there was little to no correlation between bank HQ and the satisfaction of its bankers with pay.
At HSBC and Goldman Sachs, for example, respondents were comparatively satisfied, despite their differing geographical bases. This followed a 12% increase in the bonus pool at HSBC and careful expectations management at Goldman Sachs. Barclays and Deutsche Bank bankers, who expected bonuses to rise according to our pre-Christmas bonus expectations survey, also had middle-of-the-road levels of satisfaction with their pay. One Deutsche Bank VP in London noted that she had “no salary increases and lower bonuses” last year, although she did feel secure in her job.
Just 19% of people at UBS were happy with their pay, the lowest in our survey. UBS bonuses have fallen 30% in two years. UBS rescued Credit Suisse in 2023, putting significant pressure on its ability to pay both new and existing staff. One London-based credit sales & trading analyst for UBS said his bonus was just a quarter of the market rate. Another UBS professional, a director in New York, said that he had not received “a real raise” in 5 years. He noted that a 40% pay increase would make him feel better about things.
Our 2024 financial services salary & bonus report is available for download now on this page.
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