London’s investment banking salaries and bonuses
‘Tis the season.
Well, ‘twas the season. Analyst bonus season to be exact. And with that, the last of 2023’s banking bonuses have been paid. So how did everyone’s pay stack up?
They stacked up pretty well all in all, in London at least. Pearse Partners, the financial services recruitment consultant, has aggregated and shared salary and bonus levels of 21 different London banks across nine levels of seniority.
The general trend is as expected: boutique banks paid the best. Evercore had the best paid analysts, PWP the best paid associates, and PJT the best paid VPs. Goldman Sachs, predictably, also did very well, with the third-best paid analysts and second-best paid VPs.
Putting aside the mess formerly known as Credit Suisse, it was Barclays (who paid an average of £169k, or $205k across the three ranks) that did the worst, followed by BNP Paribas (£179k, or $217k) and Greenhill (£189k, or $229k), an American boutique.
Driving the divide between the top of the list and the bottom were bonuses percentages. Whilst Barclays paid 45% of salary in bonuses to its associates and VPs, top-ranking PJT (£245k, or $297k per year on average) paid 90% and 100% to its own, respectively.
Moral of the story? If you’re a student, try to get into a boutique. Failing that, if you’re already banker, get yourself into a boutique as soon as you can. Failing that, try and get to Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs; they’re the highest-ranking big banks on the list, paying an average of £213k ($259k) and £216k ($262k) each.
This article has been amended to include salary submissions from sources unrelated to Pearse Partners for PJT Partners.
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