The most experienced people appear to be at Citi. The least experienced appear to be at Goldman

What’s an average banker? It’s hard to pin down. And it very much depends on the bank you are working for.

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Luckily, data from the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA) can help. FINRA tracks the number of registered brokers employed by every registered financial services firm in the USA, breaks them down by location, and gives them a brief job history. Taking those figures, we can estimate the average years of experience that any given banker has at any given firm in the USA.

FINRA’s data tells us that the least experienced New York-based bankers are by some margin at Goldman Sachs. Goldman’s employees average just 8.3 years of registered-broker experience, compared to Citi and Bank of America, where they average around 10. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley sit between those two extremes.

Goldman's average is low because FINRA data suggests it employs a high proportion of juniors – people with up to three years of experience. These are essentially analysts and first year associates. 40% of Goldman’s FINRA-registered workforce are at this level, compared to 33% at Citi, the other extreme.

In the four to six years of experience column, which mainly tracks associates, Goldman is not particularly represented. The firm has 15.4% of its registered New York workforce in this camp, compared to the five-bank average of 15.2%. The biggest banks here are Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, whose “associate” workforce are around 16.5% of the total.

Above the six-year mark, and especially between seven years and 15 years, things are more complicated. Most registered professionals at this stage are vice presidents (VPs) or directors. No banks are particularly overweight on this experience level.

When looking at professionals with more than 16 years of experience, and especially those with more than 20 years, things become more complicated. At this stage of their career, a registered professional can reasonably be expected to be a managing director (or even more senior than that). 

As expected given the average experience at these firms, Citi and BofA employ the most bankers in New York with over 20 years of experience. Around 18% of each bank’s workforce constitutes of professionals with more than 20 years of experience.

Goldman and Morgan Stanley were the other extreme, with just around 12.5% of their workforce constituting these professionals. The difference is significant; it suggests that each MD at Citi or BofA has 4 people working for them, and each MD at Goldman or Morgan Stanley has around 7 people working for them.

The New York figures are pretty similar to what’s seen in Europe. At Deutsche Bank in London, for example, the median seniority is “Vice President”, and the vast majority of its staff are either VPs, AVPs, or directors.

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