Was always under the impression london MDs made circa £1-1.5m average, but was recently talking to my MD in a MM bank (think RBC/Nomura/BNP) who said he makes around £600k and that's about typical for his colleagues as well. Now obviously he's not at a BB or EB, but even still, I didn't realise MD comp varied that much between banks and got that low. I mean thats VP3 comp in the US. Anyone else got any data points to chime in?
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London MD comp is a lot more variable than the US because you have a lot of money centre banks with investment banking that don’t pay well at all.
That number is probably right for a junior MD at one of those shops in a weak performing team. That said, all of those shops you mention are notoriously poorly payers (again, except for a couple teams).
At the BBs / Lazard, comp is a lot closer to NY. My guess is average is about 85% in dollar terms at the current exchange rate and comp parity kicks in at a 1.5 exchange rate. BBs tend to be relatively stronger in Europe than in the US.
The top paid people at Roths are in Europe but they are not that strong in the US.
At the name brand boutiques and the top MMs, it comes down to performance. I’m at a US MM firm with a strong position in Europe and the average comp in London for the MDs is above the £1.5 mark. The top people do very well at these places,
Thanks for the insight. Yeah I'd imagine the balance sheet banks pay the lowest since they're usually public companies and aren't as prestigious as the BBs.
So generally for above average MDs at BBs/EBs, comp would be around £1-1.5m?
Probably across the BBs yes. Will be higher at GS / JP // MS / BofA and in line with Citi / UBS / DB. Barclays at the lower end of that range.
Id exoect the brand name boutiques to be higher.
Does seem a little low, are you certain that was not only the base?
US comp is just much higher than all other countries in the world.
Avg MDs making 500-1 all in in Ldn seems abt right.
Assumption here is that they bring / close 2/3 deals each I hope. Otherwise I believe it can be also a way lower than 600k
Bear in mind that european banks are more bloated people wise.
To coverage & product teams you need to add country coverage. And the fees are lower than in the US.
Think 2% u/w on an ECM deal vs 5-7% in the US. So smaller fee pool + more mouths to feed = lower fees per head and comp
For the type of bank mentioned by OP that’s probably what average MD pulls. Bear in mind that in these banks (unless you’re bnp in paris), the competitive position is crap. You’re a hero md if you get a sell side mandate that pays £2-3m. And will likely work on several PE buy sides a year that you have to fight hard for. Lazard for example or rothschild will refuse to work on such buysides.
Spot on. For a SG or a CACIB, investment banking just isn’t a core activity
The good part about banks like that is your comp isn’t really tied to production and while there’s a cap, there’s also a floor - pretty much, you’re making between 500 and 800gbp, 1mm in sr management irrespective of performance and you don’t get fired.
id find that pretty depressing but it works for some folks
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