Bonuses often tied to IB Fees generated, below is a comparison of YTD 2024 vs 2023 deals. Per comp consultants, this percent change often a good proxy for bonuses (assuming similar headcount between years). This quarter banks will forecast bonuses and perform layoffs accordingly to shore up the bonus pool.
| +148 | UBS Catastrophic Q1-Q3 26, M&A -17%, Outside Top 10 in Americas, EMEA & APAC | 45 | 5h |
| +63 | PWP acquisition by Piper cancelled | 27 | 9h |
| +43 | No return offer - UPDATE. | 12 | 4h |
| +37 | Article: UBS Wall Street Rebuild Is a Study in Management Failure | 6 | 5h |
| +36 | Evercore poaches Baird DC Defense Team | 28 | 3h |
| +31 | Is my MD a grifter? 16 years, 8 firms | 12 | 3h |
| +24 | Lack of talent in IB! | 19 | 1d |
| +23 | Best Houston Banks for Culture in 2026 | 18 | 8h |
| +21 | Internal lateral from coverage to M&A (focused on coverage) | 6 | 16h |
| +19 | What Are The Best Boutiques 2026/2027 | 15 | 10m |
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Yikes UBS could have doubled headcount, (maybe 1.5x with layoffs and attrition) and still down 16% this year. Expect bonuses to hover around 50% of this year in 2025. To keep good talent, expect up to a third of bankers to get zeroed to increase attrition, and try to get good bankers closer to 80% or 100% of this year's bonus.
Good Data
DB making a little bit of a comeback
whats goldman doing, they must need me
Goldman does not need any more interns
im not just an intern, I'm THE INTERN.
DB Huuuuugee !!! If only they paid good bonuses : (
Hoping this data / new outlook will change things
Looks like laz making a comeback?!?
New President and new CEO. Money starts flowing now.
What is TD doing? It is top 10 right now? Don’t know where are they good at.
They brought a lot of bankers over from CS to build out their FIG presence + the Cowen acquisition helping build their HC platform. Also huge BS so all the LevFin/DCM activity plays in their favor.
Strongest coverage groups are probably HC, Tech, Media & Comm (legacy TD group) and FIG (legacy CS). Then naturally their ECM and LevFin are strong because of massive balance sheet
A friend of mine works there, and they have a growth plan through 2027. It seems like they have a good flow of deal activity
Sumitomo on its way to become the next EBB
UBS and Deutsche guys looking at IB fees after years of dunking on WF
BofA is way too high on this list.
Nahh this is cap, BofA pays decent bonus and pool should be larger this year
People got like 1/3 of market on bonuses last year. That means bonuses need to go up +200% just to be competitive with other banks... The +20% in the chart from OP doesn’t mean anything at all…
jeez, lazard with some enormous fees this year...
Premier European Advisor
M&A fees vs total IB fees (actually M&A fees per capita but no one tracks that) a truer example of where banks will rank with bonus payouts. There are all kinds of associated costs with financings, M&A revenue much cleaner.
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