COMP News – Wall Street banks have had an incredible year due to a high volume of mergers, an increase in initial public offering activity, and gains in the stock market. Top Wall Street bank employees are receiving multi-factor holiday bonuses after a profitable year – but not all are reaping the rewards.
Wall Street had a fantastic year, and they’ve decided to celebrate by rewarding bankers with the biggest bonuses since the end of the Great Recession.
A resurgent stock market in 2021, a flurry of new companies with exciting IPOs, and a revival of global dealmaking hitting record highs have meant that a lot of banks made a lot of money.
Not all employees are receiving a share of the winnings. Bonuses are being concentrated on top performers.
Wall Street bonuses this year have been directed at the best performers and dealmakers, and they are “not going to be spread like any kind of peanut butter,” Betsy Duke, a former Federal Reserve governor, told Bloomberg. The biggest bonuses at Goldman Sachs, for example, were as high as 50% for top-performing investment bankers, Reuters reports.
These bonuses are serving to retain talent in a strained workforce that is ripe with competition.
The wave of bonuses sweeping Wall Street is not only the result of a lucrative year for banking. Bankers, especially junior employees, are feeling burned out by crushing workloads during the pandemic, and with the promise of an even more active dealmaking market in 2022, the banking labor market is becoming even tighter. That has led to banks’ willingness to pay more to keep their talent.
Some banks are even going so far as including provisions in their bonuses to discourage talent from leaving. Investment bank Credit Suisse announced that larger portions of bonuses would be paid in upfront cash this year, but if employees were to leave the company within the next three years, they’d have to pay their bonuses back.
To read more about the recent spike in Wall Street holiday bonuses, click here.
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