Bonuses for Investment Banking 2017

How are bonuses looking this year? Sounds like Deutsche got hammered and Morgan Stanley was down 15%.

Mod Note: You can find the S&T and ER bonus pages below.
S&T Bonuses
ER Bonuses

Overview of Bonuses for Investment Bankers

While salaries and bonuses can change every year on Wall Street, you can stay up to date with the a href="https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/investment-banking-industry-reports">Wall Street Oasis Industry Report. You can see a snip of the details provided in the report below.

User @MiddleMarketLivesMatter", a sales and trading vice president, also shared the following insight.

"MiddleMarketLivesMatter - Sales and Trading Vice President"Middle Market Shop bonuses are looking exceptional. It's where the real money is in this new economy. Left a BB three years ago and have seen bigger bonuses every year.

Read More About Bonuses on WSO

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101 Comments
 

Bonus pools seem to be down 10-15% across the Street. For junior bankers, the key is how much of that MDs will absorb.

MS certainly had more of it fall on analysts and associates from what I've heard. Citi seems to have shifted more of it to MDs (i.e the numbers I've heard for associates actually seem flat to even up relative to last year).

No European banks have given numbers yet, including DB. There are rumors about DB possibly not giving cash bonuses at all, or only giving to 10% of employees, but nothing has been communicated at any of the non-US banks.

 

Expected, no?

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In Charlotte those are absolutely insane numbers.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 
"SHORTmyCDO"

Baml Top - A1 -$140 bonus; $290 all in, A2-$180 bonus, $355 all in; A3 - $235 bonus, $435 all in. All those figures include 20% deferred stock in the bonus figure.

That's crazy how huge the difference is between top bucket and middle. I have friends at BAML who were mid bucket or slightly above A2 and A3 and their total comp were 275-320 and 360 all-in. Sounds like very very few people got top bucket.

 

As you might expect, this varies.

I know of few L2/L3 associates who were flat, few were down 3-6% overall, and only one who got his values similar to mine above. Of Analysts L2, most of the folks I knew were up (not sure of % points), but almost all of them were up a few %. Again, this is only in TECH.

While I do know some folks in other divisions, I'm not aware of their comp info.

 

DB juniors are being very shielded, compared to the rest of the firm, from what I am hearing as as a headhunter. Comparative to most of the firm, they're crushing it. Fairly in line with street, obviously a bit below but to me this is most indicative that the firm intends to move back up the comp chain, and they've been giving the largest base salary increases across the board for analysts and associates. From what I remember, for most of this century DB has the spot to be for comp - this seems like their strategy is to get back to that status, bodes well for everyone in the shop if they can make it happen.

DB IB (very clear they're taking care of the groups they're focusing on building long-term, the others not so much, base salary % increases much lower than markets across the board - which is interesting).

Analyst 1 - 20k stub Analyst 2 - 40k - 75k Analyst 3 - 45k - 85k Associate 1 - 60k -100k Associate 2 - 75k - 140k

DB Markets (big differences between fixed income and equities, they're coming in above street in a lot of what I'm seeing for fixed income, seeing very wide ranges - highly product dependent. Also, a lot of those with low bonus numbers are reporting 15-20% + base increases, balancing it out).

Analyst 1 - 20 - 25k stub (non-equities seems to be getting an extra 5) Analyst 2 - 20 - 60k Analyst 3 - 27k - 90k Associate 1 - 30k - 110k Associate 2 - 55k - 150k

Interesting seeing how much people tend to value additional base versus bonus, although from other experience that value-edge tends to taper off at around 200k base.

Keep in mind my ranges are controlled for outliers (not putting my guys at risk), and are based on only what I'm seeing.

 
"r08ge"

DB juniors are being very shielded, compared to the rest of the firm, from what I am hearing as as a headhunter. Comparative to most of the firm, they're crushing it. Fairly in line with street, obviously a bit below but to me this is most indicative that the firm intends to move back up the comp chain, and they've been giving the largest base salary increases across the board for analysts and associates. From what I remember, for most of this century DB has the spot to be for comp - this seems like their strategy is to get back to that status, bodes well for everyone in the shop if they can make it happen.

DB IB (very clear they're taking care of the groups they're focusing on building long-term, the others not so much, base salary % increases much lower than markets across the board - which is interesting).

Analyst 1 - 20k stub
Analyst 2 - 40k - 75k
Analyst 3 - 45k - 85k
Associate 1 - 60k -100k
Associate 2 - 75k - 140k

DB Markets (big differences between fixed income and equities, they're coming in above street in a lot of what I'm seeing for fixed income, seeing very wide ranges - highly product dependent. Also, a lot of those with low bonus numbers are reporting 15-20% + base increases, balancing it out).

Analyst 1 - 20 - 25k stub (non-equities seems to be getting an extra 5)
Analyst 2 - 20 - 60k
Analyst 3 - 27k - 90k
Associate 1 - 30k - 110k
Associate 2 - 55k - 150k

Interesting seeing how much people tend to value additional base versus bonus, although from other experience that value-edge tends to taper off at around 200k base.

Keep in mind my ranges are controlled for outliers (not putting my guys at risk), and are based on only what I'm seeing.

 
"r08ge"

DB juniors are being very shielded, compared to the rest of the firm, from what I am hearing as as a headhunter. Comparative to most of the firm, they're crushing it. Fairly in line with street, obviously a bit below but to me this is most indicative that the firm intends to move back up the comp chain, and they've been giving the largest base salary increases across the board for analysts and associates. From what I remember, for most of this century DB has the spot to be for comp - this seems like their strategy is to get back to that status, bodes well for everyone in the shop if they can make it happen.

DB IB (very clear they're taking care of the groups they're focusing on building long-term, the others not so much, base salary % increases much lower than markets across the board - which is interesting).

Analyst 1 - 20k stub
Analyst 2 - 40k - 75k
Analyst 3 - 45k - 85k
Associate 1 - 60k -100k
Associate 2 - 75k - 140k

DB Markets (big differences between fixed income and equities, they're coming in above street in a lot of what I'm seeing for fixed income, seeing very wide ranges - highly product dependent. Also, a lot of those with low bonus numbers are reporting 15-20% + base increases, balancing it out).

Analyst 1 - 20 - 25k stub (non-equities seems to be getting an extra 5)
Analyst 2 - 20 - 60k
Analyst 3 - 27k - 90k
Associate 1 - 30k - 110k
Associate 2 - 55k - 150k

Interesting seeing how much people tend to value additional base versus bonus, although from other experience that value-edge tends to taper off at around 200k base.

Keep in mind my ranges are controlled for outliers (not putting my guys at risk), and are based on only what I'm seeing.

You're saying DB is increasing Associate 2 base for some people from $175k to as much as $315k--which is higher than VP3 salary across the Street? I get that this is in lieu of bonus but this makes absolutely no sense unless this is going with $0 bonus with this---and they'll still have retention problems b/c people's comp will be paid throughout the year and they will not be missing on any deferred comp or bonus to leave. The play here would be to take your ridiculous base salary for 6 months and then flip ovrer to another bank and get a fully year mid bucket bonus there. Am I misunderstanding what you are saying? I'm highly skeptical of what you lay out.

 

DB junior numbers out. Using $$$ to keep junior level happy, but won't stop exodus once figures hit bank accounts. Can only speak to analyst level: N1: 25k stub
N2: general range of 55k-85k, bit higher or tighter depending on group. N3: cannot confirm range, but have generally heard 90+, This may be because those with good numbers tend to be more vocal

Everyone also got a group based bonus, depending on whether their group hit KPIs. This translates to upwards of ~2.5k for 1st years, ~6.5k for 2nd years, and ~8k for 3rd years, in addition to their individual variable comp.

 

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