I wouldn't want to believe what that poster said. There are lots of clamp downs and caps on bonuses over the past few years. Anything above 2 years will be extremely high in today's environment. I would say that the very max is 1 year bonus for banks in Singapore (of course, there would be SOME exceptions; but let's not talk about those).

That's what i thought, thus i asked about the associates and VPs only

its pretty low...

3-6

Are u sure u are FO??? or is it some glorified position... 5k is too little for a BB FO.

thats what we pay our IT guy..

He's probably some sales assistant... and thats not FO... its MO

Are there anyone doing IB FO here? I'm curious about how the IB market is like now. Heard that IBers from Goldman, Macquarie and CIMB got laid off recently.

What is the environment like in FO now? What would be the typical expected plans for those who got laid off? For example, I believe that some of them are analysts (<2 years). Where could they reasonably go from here, considering the current environment?

Institutional banking. submit a lot of reports to board level members each month
Is that on the low end? Your place hiring?

Don't think it's the clear cut FO people are referring to (usually when people say FO here they mean IBD, S&T or ER). 5xk+ p.a. is impossible for a BB FO position.

As always, the financial markets are cyclical in nature. There has been a recent pull back in terms of hiring especially in SEA since deal volumes (mainly equity based deals) have plummeted. Goldman cut about 30% of their IBD staff in Singapore (don't let 30% fool you...30% of IBD staff in Singapore equates to only about 15 people) and I think a few other banks did too. Goldman has about 800+ staff in Singapore of which 300+ are in FO roles (and majority of which are in S&T). It's just a function of the cyclical nature of the business. Overall, the markets are still holding up well...i.e. the cuts were made only because of recent business conditions in SEA. Will they pick up again in future? Of course.

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, when you mentioned that "cuts were made only because of recent business conditions in SEA", were you referring primarily to equity-based sales or does it include to other areas as well (e.g. M&A and DCM)? From what I saw around, the market in DCM and M&A for SEA isn't that great either..