Worst paying shops on the street?
Excluding the smaller regional boutiques, what would you say are the worst paying shops on the street?
Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
September 30, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
bump
RBC @ 100k base is one for starts
1. the base has been upgraded
2. RBC was never lowest on the street on total comp for analyst, bonus was a little higher to make up for it. am sure it'll now pull back that incremental amount since base is higher but such is life
Congrats on RBC
I work at Barclays and we got such shit analyst bonuses this year.
Would not recommend for anyone to come here
This is my vote for the BB. Excluding ubs / DB since I’ve never met somebody over there
DB is street in london
What about ASO bonuses? Any color?
What was the bonus this year years from a friend it was fine?
Jefferies this year and most likely next few years will be among the lowest. They grew senior headcount 20%+ all on guarantees.
This true in ER as well?
Think BMO is still 100k base
Defo Barclays last year and about to get a whole lot worse
RBC (not just referring to analyst base salaries)
Someone on a different thread said that DC advisory AN1 base (london) is £52k, shocking
Not true, that’s for its Manchester office.
London is £65k for AN1.
Great, thanks!
HSBC is 100k base
And sh1t bonus
People always say Stifel. I work there and got 45k for A1. Just sharing here to see if it is really that bad compared to other banks with a rep for paying below st or if it is exaggerated.
We do make 100 base though — not great.
45k is nasty work, at a similar bank and 55k was our mid-bucket
.
Stifel paid 75k for first years when I was there in the middle of street for that year - was 2021 so it was peak crazy market though, got 70k as An2..
Crédit Agricole is definitely a contender
I wonder what places like CIBC pay
CA does very little M&A outside of France (from what I've been told/from what I've read elsewhere), so your comment doesn't surprise
Yeah I’m referring to the US, not France. It’s a different story over there
cibc a1 base is 115 i believe. no idea about bonuses
Credit agricole pay scale is terrible. A1 i believe starts at 100 but their bonuses were capped at 15k for first 2 years. Then when moving to associate, it was common to have years with no bump in base. Going up to the senior levels, there was only 1 MD in the NY office making more than 1mm, the Head of the NY office.
Delete
I heard they had to increase pay because people were leaving too much. I remember interviewing there and the offer was shit but then the same job got a huge paybump a few months later.
Alantra for both US and UK page concerning badly - I hear 85k base US and like 45-50k UK (unsure)
Piper @ 100k base for An1
They just bumped it this past summer
Never heard good things about MS comps (worse than GS)
any numbers?
ING US - highest bonus is 10%-15% and many teams are ultra lean and they love moving all back-office functions to front office. Imagine treasury from Europe asking you what codes you use to book your deals and delegating you to reach out to your own treasury team for help.
Also bump from analyst to associate is 8% of base salary, and same goes from assoc to vp and vp to director. There are VPs making 180k at ING.
I’ve heard MDs at ING say the pay is weak compared to US banks
10-15% bonus seems excessively low, is that group/performance specific? Also 180k for VP in IBD functions?
I believe bonuses in Netherlands for the financial sector are capped by regulations at 20%. My guess is the firm, being based out of Netherlands, doesn't pay the US / foreign office employees bonuses above 20% because of this, even though they hypothetically could. Sounds pretty gay if you ask me.
Tobin and Co doesn't even pay its junior bankers. That has to be the winner
Regional / industry boutiques. Several random banks in SF offered me like $70k last year. What a joke. Ended up holding out for a better offer at $130k. Those banks were doing stuff like LMM SaaS or auto industry deals.
What’s aso bonus like? Heard An were around 40k and flat across buckets.
Leerink sucks. Get worked the hardest of any HC group on the street and then pay below street bonuses. They always underpay and wonder why they lose juniors…
What would you say avg hours and bonus is?
Can confirm, stay away from this joke.
Were you in services or biopharma group?
Was bottom bucket in biopharma and got paid well but worked to death
Plain wrong. Leer is one of the better paying banks - check other bonus threads
gorman staley for sure
macquarie w/ the exception of 2021
Any numbers ? Incoming 1st year trying to figure out data points
I heard Nomura excluding Greentech pays atrociously. Can anyone confirm this?
RBC, HSBC, Jeff seem lower this year than peers
From my network. An -> D, it seems the below are places to avoid if you want decent pay. Based on last few years.
BBs
- MS
- Barclays
Big Banks
- HSBC
- RBC
- Nomura
- BNP
-Jefferies
Smaller Banks and Boutiques
- ING
- William Blair
- Stifel
- Alantra
- DC Advisory
- Lincoln
Agree with most of these except Blair, they got beat down in the last year esp for tech, but overall they tend to pay above street
Fair enough. I guess Blair is very dependent on their performance as a firm, more so than others that have protected junior bonus pools
What have you heard about MS comp?
Nomura shouldn’t be on this list. They lay fairly well.
second this
How are they paying well?
Truist
Brant Street in Toronto
D.A. Davidson:
An1 95k base, An2 105k
Bonus capped at 50%
Probably some small international bank nobody has heard of.
If we mean major players Probably Japanese and Euro banks not called Barclay's.
The other day I saw a post on WSO about a guy received an IB analyst offer that pays 60k. No idea if it’s troll
HSBC, Barclays, RBC all have shit base and bonuses.
Esse eos voluptatum nulla. Placeat perferendis rem eaque cum et. Delectus laborum aut similique placeat modi sequi. Nobis dolores eaque quam minima.
Odio cupiditate alias iste incidunt. Dicta quos ut sapiente dignissimos fuga possimus. Nobis neque iure et voluptatem. Dignissimos optio enim non dolorem repellat et.
Est consequatur voluptas quia aut. Reprehenderit illum occaecati rem aut iste ut aspernatur. Molestiae ullam recusandae enim sit nobis et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Nam et officia ea illum voluptas sed. Perferendis sit dicta id. Doloribus rem voluptatem quisquam atque similique possimus. Expedita culpa animi doloribus inventore nam et accusamus rem.
Debitis architecto et qui. Et iure deserunt est ea aut sint id ea. Modi quae quam est reprehenderit asperiores dolorem quo. Et officiis voluptatem et rem ullam. Sit minima facilis sapiente porro sed. Pariatur sed omnis et mollitia voluptate ut.
Deleniti sed dolores et quasi minus ipsa exercitationem qui. Dolor excepturi molestias et. In repellat cumque fuga qui est eaque omnis. Dolore sunt vel et fugit sunt amet.
Alias repellat ea qui dicta dicta. Asperiores consequatur qui aliquid facilis officia qui. Voluptatem ut culpa vel atque.
Nam vitae explicabo maxime et ad. Culpa recusandae et eum voluptatem necessitatibus magnam.
Adipisci suscipit voluptas est enim tempore nihil. Quaerat fuga voluptatem iusto. Et unde dolores voluptatum qui enim accusamus nostrum. Et a non et enim corrupti sit quas.
Quo cumque dignissimos dolor labore repellendus sunt est sit. Tenetur doloribus id et totam. Enim et magni sed dignissimos.
Odit iusto voluptas ipsum aut nobis voluptate inventore. Placeat dolores est sunt nisi voluptatibus culpa ea. Consequatur dicta sint porro quisquam quasi voluptatem eaque.