First bank announces bonuses. Not everyone is delighted
Bonus day at Royal Bank of Canada has come and gone and although it seemed that bonuses there are up 16% on average after a strong year, it seems the love has not been shared equally.
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Speaking off the record, one senior RBC banker tells us that the bonus pool was skewed to North America, where this year's allocations were strong, and away from Europe, where this year's allocations were not always as fine.
RBC isn't commenting, but junior sources at the bank in London say bonuses there were mixed. One associate in investment banking tells us his whole team is "very happy." However, another associate on the investment banking team tells us everyone on his team left early yesterday and that the discontentment was palpable.
In 2023, the most generous banks (Rothschild, Moelis & Co., Lazard) were estimated to have paid their associates (averaged across all levels) bonuses of 100% of salary. The least generous (Barclays) were estimated to have paid 45%.
RBC declined to comment on its bonuses. The discontented London associate claims that some teams were paid a lot better than the rest. In his team, he claims bonuses were as low as 30% of salary and that even top performers often got no more than 60%. "It's better than last year, but we were told they were trying to match the street," he says.
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