BOFA COMP THREAD
Comp is today, little thread to see how much we’re being shafted:
Title
Bonus (base)
YoE
Group
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Career Resources
Bump
SOS mods have chained me to a radiator in a dark basement with CCP propaganda on the walls and are torturing me with cigarettes
It’s bad, folks.
It’s really bad
.
Uh oh…
F
Bump
^
Relax ... it's only an hour or two into the day, they have like 30 associates on some of their teams
Maybe “30 associates” this is the problem
Top bucket ASO1 barely higher than analyst bonus
Might want to provide some numbers
I’ve heard $0-40k for ASO1
Correct.
True for anyone in low middle to bottom
This is not true, Ive heard low middle got 0, middle/higher middle got 20-40k
Maybe for your team. Ours was higher than that for middle/upper middle. Tough year
bruh
$0K?
Is banking really that cyclical in the US? That is insane.
Any insight into markets comp?
Only know on senior side, but much better than banking. Many folks flat
^^
Okay so middle bucket Aso1 at ~20k
How about Aso2 and Aso3?
Is this bank dead?
Don’t think so. They just don’t fire A&As (or VERY few) and hired a ton of bodies during Covid that shouldn’t be in banking and still work here.
Don’t think so. They just don’t fire A&As (or VERY few) and hired a ton of bodies during Covid that shouldn’t be in banking and still work here.
Did aso3s get higher comp? How about vp
Noticed most the low comp comes from the mba associate class, usually the more experienced aso classes have gotten better numbers
Aso2
base 200 -> 225
70k bonus
product group
exceeds / meets
better than last year but it sounds like that’s not the case for everybody. Seniors got crushed
For reference what did Aso1 get last year?
I got 55 last year as an aso1
heard coverage groups faired better last year - like maybe 75-85 for top performers but don’t quote me on that. I don’t have hard numbers
Top bucket ASO 1 in my group got $125k
Very few E’s this year, let alone EM. Congratulations, well done in a tough year.
Source: a high meets / meets bum
Do you know roughly what percentage of people get what ratings?
Do you know roughly what percentage of people get what ratings?
If I got this low a bonus as a sr associate….
I have gotten less than 5 emails today. Morale is not great, no one is working
Same here. Gotten like 3 emails today
Most people in my group just stopped answering their phones. MDs pushed to next week. I think over half the associate class will quite quit….pretty careless behavior by the bank.
Del
Any stock or all cash?
Del.
For what it is worth I received this shit comp while my groups revenue was Up 30% YoY
I understand shafting mid / low performers but I don’t understand drastically under paying high achievers
It’s clear to me there is an associate bubble at this bank that they want to get rid of. I get the business rationale, but just be straight up with people and fire them if you want them out.
Middle bucket ASO2
10% bonus, devastated
Wow this is ridiculous - what do you plan on doing?
Have to find a new job at this point
Not seeing how others are getting wide ranges of comp compared to what our group got
ASO 1 (full year)
mid bucket
$55K
Wish I could at least say we were that slow.
Is $55k before or after tax
Are BofA ASOs being paid a lot less than the street? And did seniors get paid well?
just trying to get a sense if it’s time to look elsewhere…
Street kinda all over the place this year but on the whole BoA looks very low. This is at minimum a standard deviation from median, likely.
With bonus numbers like this, this is why people are saying up and coming firms like DC Advisory and Natixis deserve that BB ranking above firms like Jefferies and BofA
Ok Intern
I bet you exclusively fund 60% LTV senior secured first-lien debt and tell girls you work in ~~sTrUcTuReD dEbT~~
We know it’s you James
I’m very confused. There’s almost no data points on this thread.
Don’t know if I would be on this forum literally minutes after I received the news…
Great year for a $45k stub bonus I guess… not sure if I’ll stick around to see next year’s scraps.
Associate 2 —-> Associate 3
Base: $200 —-> $225
Bonus: $85 —> $80
Rating: ME
Product Group
Underwhelming. The one good thing about IB is the pay and I haven’t seen a lick of that in my 2.5 years here. Cranking past midnight most days. Probably going to quit but nowhere to go
TBH $285K for DCM sounds pretty cush to me, what were average hours/week, low end of 50-60ish?
I am not in DCM - username is for anonymity. In a sweatier product group.
These pay numbers are quite different from what people received last year
Think decent to good performing asos were getting at least 80-100k last year
They largely protected juniors from the shitty market last year. Not the case this year. Seniors were mad last year, just as mad this year. We had a couple quit over bad bonuses last year
-
Why lie? MDs and Ds got lower bonuses
Doesn’t seem to be in line with what others have gotten, did you comment on the correct post?
Yeahhh my bad wrong thread
fing lol at this thread!
have the hours sucked this year as well?
10% bonuses for mid bucket AS2 is pretty hilarious
Very lol! Go fuck yourself intern
Aso 2, lower middle bucket. 20k bonus.
I knew my bonus was going to be bad so I played politics with a few MDs in case they ended up with enough to slide me a tip… instead I got shafted and now one of my MDs asked if I would be quiet quitting because he needs someone to help babysit his kid.
Times are getting rough here at BofA. I think I might have to take him up on his offer.
He’ll probably pay you a better hourly wage
When does this actually go to payroll ? When can we safely do nothing and still get paid our scraps?
Feb 15th
F
Bottom Bucket 1Y 37.5 BofA
ASO 1 (Full-Year)
M/E
$47.5K
Recommend deleting specific group from this
Delete your group from this. Just looking out for you
Very surprised by the significant pay below street. BofA has historically been a “low beta” bank in terms of both bank performance and bonuses. This year despite the bank performing OK relative to others they chose to absolutely ream their employees.
My thoughts are they’re trying to get people to quit in lieu layoffs to avoid bad publicity. Problem is there’s nowhere to go.
Yes, they also largely protected juniors last year from the pain. Not the case this year which was worse revenue wise. Heard from my group head.
.
Those seem like really high numbers...
And you work at bofa?
.
How much was it last year?
Bump
Bofa comp tops the street except ibd
Left BofA last year and glad I did. It's almost as if BofA could've avoided all of this by getting rid of the dead weight Associates like every other bank on the street did... ~60 Associates in M&A and easily 40+ Associates in many industry groups (bigger than some entire coverage/product teams at some banks btw)... At $175k to $225k a head just to keep the machine on - in this market? Why is anyone at BofA surprised?
I just feel bad for the Associates, VPs and Directors who actually pulled their weight (frankly, more weight than usual cause they need to pick up after the low quality COVID hires) and got shit bonuses because there are so many mouths to feed. Wouldn't be surprised if strong performers start leaving to competitors and the poor performers with little to no deal reps stay because the salary is good. Hell, I sure would if it were me, especially since BofA protects their A&As
Yes that’s precisely what I’m noticing - the market combined with bloated headcount is creating a class of “haves” and “have nots.” A subset of people are on critical accounts, getting cranked, getting good deal experience, but are frustrated by the comp numbers. Another subset of people are not getting deal experience, working on easy pitches, market updates, etc. Their bonus was bad but they’re also working like 9-7 on low stakes stuff and are essentially cruising.
Would note that this is primarily BofA’s fault, not the candidates. BofA hired and retained a ton of people the past couple years with the expectation of aggressive growth across the bank, which has not materialized.
In my opinion, the only solution is to lay off analysts and associates unfortunately. Cutting bonuses won’t work and will just piss people off who are actually working. If you’re cruising on pitches, not working a lot, etc. what’s the incentive to leave when you’re making $200k base?
I know juniors in the group who are actually working are frustrated. They’re essentially subsidizing the fixed overhead of the people who are coasting.
I never understood this. Working across from BofA on a deal would see 3 associates and same # of analysts (relative to 1/1 on our side). Only a handful were truly meaningful to process too. Why are junior teams kept so large?
Good people will get out they got the shaft
excited to see more numbers!
any sales and trading numbers
I think it's important to note that Natixes, the purple touch, ranked Most Impressive Bank (in France) back to back 2021 & 2022, did not pay Associate 3s $20K bonuses this year. I feel like Natixes (#1 ranked bank for Insurance Debt in France as of 2024 YTD) should be in the convo for BB rankings more now that BofA, DB and Wells have all fallen off
Bro what are you talking about
JaaaaaammmeeeesiJames you can’t hide
Found the french intern.
Understand its a bit of an outlier year, but this is why you don't solely rely on your salary for savings...
Did you mean to say the opposite genius?
Nice contribution bro!
I don’t work in IB but think it’s crazy how some analysts or associates can put up with 80+ hours weekly for a year only to get a bonus equivalent to 1-2 months of base salary.
I have a friend who works in corporate banking who seems to make the same base but a similar to higher bonus, but works probably 9-5 or 6 on most days, and no weekends. Not saying corporate banking is necessarily a better job but on an hourly basis it seems certainly more relaxing to have a job like that
Aso 2
Lower middle bucket equivalent
10k
Basically fired ..
VP1. Coverage. Lower middle buck
$112k bonus. Very bad.
VP2. TC low 500s. Low single digit % decrease from last year. All things considered not wildly upset.
Does this mean the analysts will see virtually 0s in 6 months
As someone who's leaving for the buyside, I'm expecting 0 and anything above that is a win.
If BofA clearly wants certain people to quit, why didn’t they just tell the people they have one of 2 options. Either 0 bonus and stay, or that $30k shit bonus and agree to voluntary leave by X date? Not trying to advocate for banks to give 0 bonus, but if they clearly are trying to get people to quit, wouldn’t this be an easier way to do it without screwing over all moral? Imagine if they did this, they could utilize the people who want to stay rather than $30k and then allocate the $30k to others in the Group so comp isn’t so bad for the mid/high performers.
There was sub buckets within middle bucket (meets meets). I’ve seen “meets meets” Aso1 yesterday get dependent on group:
0 10 20 27.5 30 35 This is all speculation but, lots of folks that were “meets meets” this year and got those bottom 3 were former “meets exceeds or exceeds meets” in previous years. Feels like they want some to stay (they won’t) despite the garbage numbers I could be wrong who knows
Edit: added the year
Seconding this. I went from EM to MM and was told next year would be better. Got one of the higher bonuses in your range but I absolutely will not be waiting around for next year.
VP1- $125k bonus. All-in approaching $400k DCM.
Would you be willing to share your hours / lifestyle? Very strong bonus compared to some of the other figures in coverage posted above
Yes- I would say I have 2 things going for me: probably more experience than almost anyone on my team so I’m able to get things done quickly as well as an extremely strong work ethic. My hours are about 50/week. Also- I’ve brought in a ton of revenue. So much that I have a cash retention bonus scheduled to be paid every year for the next 3 years on top of my bonus so that I don’t quit. Probably an outlier and should have a better title than VP but I’m letting it ride since it comes easy for me. I would say that I’m not top bucket but actually the top of the entire bucket.
Meh not bad
What are analyst numbers gonna look like?
Here are my thoughts. Last year middle bucket was around 45-50k. The second half of 2023 was stronger than the first half and hopefully Q1 and Q2 of 2024 are stronger quarters. If that holds up I would expect analyst bonuses to at least be in line with last years. Also I feel that some groups are less inflated at the analyst level. I’m a second year in a coverage group and the analyst work way more than the associates (some associates basically have nothing to do). Just my 2 cents though.
Nah analysts are also screwed. Every year they try to do these mental gymnastics, it’ll be lower variance but it’ll be lower than last year
Any other VP or Director numbers?
I’ve asked around a little bit and the numbers seem to range from $50 to $175k across VP1-3
Honestly, based on everything that’s been shared on bonuses, the real winners are the VPs and Ds that got RIFed and got their severance and all their stock lol
oof
I have a friend at BofA who is a 2nd year director going on to be a 3rd year director and he got $55k.
Damn, rough. Is that a “don’t stick around” kind of bonus or “that’s all we could afford”? Would they give that guy any indication if he’s supposed to quietly leave?
-
I’m a VP and was in the $225-250k range
top bucket?
ASO 2
45k
E/M
last year M/E; 55k
Do you expect a good amount of IBK associates to leave after this bonus cycle?
Could be but where should they go
I'd expect middle performers to leave. While even the top people had a tough year, the middle and bottom really got hit hard. The bottom won't leave as they liekly won't find a better job and BofA won't fire anyone. True, even good people who want to leave may struggle to land something but have much better chance than bottom folks.
Is M/E different from E/M?
Yes, ME is lower. ME is essentially the veru middle (though comp can still be different for people with the same rating)
For those who have been promoted to VP what is your new salary?
It’s 275k for all years at VP level
Is it different for Cap Markets or Corporate Banking? Heard lower numbers from other teams
ITS BAD FOLKS
Seems as if literally everyone in the group knows the problem except for leadership lol.
When you don’t fire people and you don’t pay well, it incentivizes coasting. Not only that, it encourages the bottom performers to stay because they 1) have nowhere else to go, 2) can cruise snd collect their base, and 3) don’t have enough deal reps to go somewhere else even if they tried.
To someone else’s point, I think middle performers (and to a lesser extent, top performers) are going to leave and BofA is going to be stuck with the scrubs.
I hear you and I get what you’re saying but we’re talking about people’s livelihoods. I’m at a different bank that has headcount issues, in my group at least and the vast majority of the people who are ‘coasting’ would love to be working on deals and grinding.
I know what you’re saying, I get it…There are people taking advantage of the situation but don’t lose sight of the above. Also, ignore my title because I am more senior but IB is NEVER properly staffed. Either too many people or too little.
Yep that’s fair. When the market eventually turns around people will leave in droves and at the same time the market will be cooking, so makes sense to plan for that to an extent.
Understood on the livelihoods point but I know the IB seniors aren’t thinking like that. They laid off a few VPs and Ds without notice, and I’d argue their livelihoods are way more negatively impacted than an associate would be (house, kids, etc). Not to mention EVERY OTHER BANK laid off at least a handful of associates, I think it’s necessary to keep the ecosystem going. I just don’t get the strategy of what they are trying to do, by keeping all of this associate bloat and not paying well across the board.
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