Analysts forecast record 10-year growth in Wall Street bonuses


08/12/2021

Wall Street investment bankers will see double-digit bonus increases this year. Payouts to advisers and analysts will be the biggest in nearly a decade, Johnson Associates forecasts.



Ramy Majouji
Many Wall Street employees can expect double-digit bonus increases in 2021 as compared to the last year. Payouts to those working in the investment industry could reach record amounts in a decade, Reuters notes, citing a paper by Johnson Associates, a consulting firm.

"The sphere has reached new high that was looking impossible in the last year," noted Alan Johnson, head of the firm. Thanks to an unprecedented surge of deals in 2021, he said that investment workers will be able to count on the biggest bonus checks in about a decade this year. Underwriting bankers, for example, could get a bonus 30-35% higher than last year; investment bankers in advisory, trading and equity sales might receive a bonus 20-25% higher than last year. Asset managers, hedge funds and private equity investors could see a 10-15% increase, while fixed-income traders, retail and commercial bankers should expect bonuses to be at the same level as last year, Johnson said.

Wall Street bonuses declined in 2020 because of the recession, but their growth this year shows that financial executives feel their businesses have recovered, Johnson said. The banks will begin paying bonuses to employees in January 2022. However, money alone may not be enough to make staff happy, Johnson said. 

source: reuters.com