Goldman Sachs's UK investment bankers suffered their biggest compensation losses last year. Salaries also fell significantly at Credit Suisse, according to a recent study.
New figures for London's financial industry underscore what previous estimates from New York have already shown: The investment banking slump for M&A business strongly impacted bank employee remuneration. The fallow deal environment and share offerings led to significant pay cuts for London investment bankers at almost all levels of management in the past year.
Top-tier vice presidents earned 13 percent less, according to a survey of around 250 bankers by global executive search firm Dartmouth Partners, reported by «Bloomberg (behind paywall).
Apart from junior associates, overall employee compensation decreased. While base salaries typically continued to rise, bonuses were cut due to lower transaction fees.
Difficult Times at Goldman Sachs
At Goldman Sachs, the salaries of British bankers fell the most in 2022: total compensation fell by 28 percent, and VP compensation by almost 25 percent. In the previous year, the London dealmakers from Goldman Sachs were still the front runners.
Wall Street competitors like Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley, offer more in certain salary brackets, according to the Dartmouth survey.
Compensation at Credit Suisse also fell significantly in the year before its takeover by UBS, with salaries shrinking 18 percent, while VP compensation dropped 29 percent.
Fixed Pandemic Boost
Data from the world's financial Mecca had previously shown that bankers had to put up with severe disappointments. According to New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's annual estimate, the average bonus paid to Wall Street securities employees fell to $176,700 in 2022, corresponding to a decrease of 26 percent compared to the previous year.
New York's chief auditor was critical of the bonus payments for 2022 last year, finews.com reported.
The 2022 bonus pool of $33.7 billion is down 21 percent from last year's record $42.7 billion, the biggest drop since the Great Recession. The rebound to pre-pandemic levels largely offsets the pool's sharp rise of 25 percent in 2020 and 15 percent in 2021.
