Banks' Pay and Bonuses
 

What are the salaries and bonuses in banks today like? I understand that there are lots of new regulations over the past few years, which have impacted the salaries/bonuses significantly.

Does anyone know what are the approximate figures for both salaries and bonuses for:

1) Top-front office (IB/S&T)
2) Front office (Corp B/Private B/Commercial B)
3) Middle office (Compliance/Risk/Finance/HR)
4) Back office (Ops/Tech)

Appreciate all replies. Thanks.

I am in back office. Recently got 10% increment and 5 months bonus. May sound impressive but then again, i'm not in a bank. I'm in a sovereign fund.

Back office, 15 yrs experience, Director level, $20K per month (fixed), bonus 2-3 months

yup
 

Am in category 1...

1 year of experience... Bad year, Base 13k per month... 2.5 months bonus...

Back office, 2 years exp

6% increment

2.5mths bonus

sound not too good, hope to do it better next year

5 Months bonus? That's a lot for BO. But I guess that SWF's BO differs slightly from Banks' BOs.

This is interesting.. I'm guessing IB? Is the "low" bonus because of the economic climate (i.e. not much businesses around to do)? Or is it because of regulations? How do you see the environment in Singapore (and bonuses) to be like moving forward?

Thanks.

3. Compliance for foreign banks. 5 Yrs exp.
Annual package of 72k (exclude 5-6 mths bonus). Must always achieve band 1 in AML regulations or else face the immediate risk of losing job.

they bumped base but cut bonus, not much diff.nothing to do with regulations... Not as if it's within your control anyways.

End of the day there's no other industry that is as lucrative

How difficult is it to become a director in BO after 15 years? Let's say for a local uni grad (2nd uppers). How many % would become a director?

Thanks.

Banks dun look at your results nor which uni you come from except for prestigious IB or MA programs. Director or VP level can be reached from 8 - 10 years upwards

If you want to work in Banks, you need to have excellent interpersonal,communication skills to be promoted. I would say yr class of honors does not really matter. It is just a passport for your entry into the bank and bargaining chips for your starting pay as a fresh grad. After that, it becomes a piece of paper unlike in civil service wheres that piece of paper determine your long run-potential.Your work performance and peers, superior appraisal is the key to determine your promotion . About less 10% would have become director level.

I have seen fair share of those local uni fresh grad with stellar academic credential, but they are too reserved, and introvert. Yes they can do their work well, but maintaining good relationship with your superior determine who get the promotion.

sorry off topic..facing a dilemma here. If given a choice, would you all choose to work as trade support in a well known, global firm or a FO, market facing role in a much lesser known bank?

Just how important is having a good brand name on one's CV? Or is the role more impt?

Thanks for any advice

It depends.
- Is this your first job?
- What do you mean by trade support? Executing the trades of traders, Global transaction services, or?
- How much less reputable is the bank? (e.g. what's its revenue and market cap?)
- What is the market facing role? Corporate/commercial/private/retail banking? What is your role there? To actually obtain clients (with a foreseeable pipelines of clients), or merely supporting the people there in their servicing of clients?
- Pay difference?

How much do you wanna be making? Trade support analyst role hits 60K max per annum. Front office role can get you this at the start.

intern/first year analyst at a bulge bracket front office role (think JPM, GS, CS, MS etc)...close to 10k per month.

jpm don't pay their interns 10k

the list of BBs are there just for reference...i'm not saying JPM pays their interns close to 10k. but some BBs definitely do.

No one pays interns for 10k. That doesn't make business sense when you can get an experienced hire with that money.

Analyst FO, first year, about 5xk per annum. Feeling discounted.
Not sure should I stay or move

Seeking everyone's advice. On average 12 hours/day

Maybe not 10k, but goldman sachs apparently pays some of their interns 8-9k per month.

And I don't think you can get experienced hire with just 10k. The annual package for fresh grad is approx 150-200k.

Of cos, not all positions in investment banks are paid so well.

thank you for backing me up. it used to be 8-9k for interns in some BBs (like GS, MS etc; summer interns are paid a pro-rated rate of a first year analyst's package) but recently majority of the BBs cut back on their bonuses but increased base salaries. for those of you who don't know, for some of the BBs, pay scale is global. i.e. what a FO analyst gets in NYC is what another FO analyst gets in another city like HK or SG. if you do some research, you'll find that the BBs increased first year analysts' base from 70k USD p.a. to 85 USD p.a. which translates to about 115k SGD p.a...and there you have your close to 10k SGD per month pro rated to 10 weeks for a summer intern.

on top of that, it is well known that majority of the FO interns in BBs here in SG come from universities outside of SG (mainly the ivy leagues and other top tier schools from the UK, Canada etc), so there is also a relocation stipend and housing on top of the base salary.

hope this adds some insight. of course, this only applies to front office (IBD, S&T, research etc) roles.

Thanks for your insight. Does this apply to equity research too? Particularly for GS/JPM/MS.

yes it does...the 3 BBs you mentioned have all bumped base salary from 70k USD to 85k USD.

what exactly do you do day to day and what type of a bank is this? mid market? regional?

BO.
6 years experience.
130k.
Bonus ~2 months.
8% increment.

Hi, are you aware how many mths of bonuses do the BB FO people get these days? Say the S&T, research guys in singapore.

Where I am, some received 4 YEARS!

How many mths do the associates and VPs get? Excluding the MDs

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..