Salaries and bonuses for top risktakers at Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and others
Everyone knows that bankers make a lot of money. But just how much money do the most senior bankers in the industry – managing directors and heads of desks – earn? As it turns out, a lot.
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The figures below were made public as part of the European Union's pay transparency requirements for 2024, were used. The data mostly refers to salaries and bonuses for Material Risk Takers, or MRTs for short, defined as people whose “professional activities have a material impact on the risk profile of the firm,” per the UK’s FCA, while UBS data refers to Key Risk Takers (KRTs), a self-created categorization. All data is derived from Pillar III filings for each of the banks concerned.
The primary difference between MRTs and KRTs is that MRT designation requires an employee to earn £660k to be automatically considered one, while KRT designation requires someone to earn over CHF2.5m or $2.5m.
Where possible, we've broken out the data for MRTs in the investment banks only (labelled as 'investment banking MRTs' in the reports). These are front office MRTs only, working in areas like M&A as well as capital markets and sales & trading. The figures therefore don't include MRTs in control functions like risk and compliance (for American banks’ control MRTs here), or pay for members of management committees. For BNP Paribas, the data covers risk-takers related to the Corporate and Investment Bank (“CIB”), as opposed to “investment banking”. For UBS, it is for all KRTs across the bank.
The data shows that pay for MRTs generally went up last year. Among European banks it also shows that Deutsche Bank paid the most. UBS had the biggest pay increases for KRTs/MRTs, with bonuses in particular more than doubling compared to the year before, in the aftermath of the Credit Suisse acquisition.
Salaries and bonuses at Barclays in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 783 investment bank MRTs at Barclay in 2024.
Average salary: The average Barclays investment bank MRT earned $909k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average Barclays investment bank MRT earned $1.1m in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average Barclays investment bank MRT earned $2.0m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average Barclays MRT (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) earned just 51% of their bonus in cash (64% deferred); 49% were in shares (65% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average Barclays MRT’s (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) bonus was 56% deferred (50% cash, 50% shares).
Average severance payment: Barclays fired 34 MRTs (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) in 2024, who received $174k each in severance, on average.
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of investment bank MRTs fell from 849 to 783, an 8% decrease. Average salaries went from $923k per head to $909k per head, a 2% decrease. Average bonuses went from $852k per head to $1.1m per head, a 25% increase. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.8m to $2.0m, an 11% increase.
Distribution of staff earning over €1m:
Salaries and bonuses at HSBC in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 535 investment bank MRTs at HSBC in 2024.
Average salary: The average HSBC investment bank MRT earned $611k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average HSBC investment bank MRT earned $738k in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average HSBC investment bank MRT earned $1.4m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average HSBC MRT (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) earned just 50% of their bonus in cash (46% deferred); 50% were in shares (57% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average HSBC MRT’s (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) bonus was 51% deferred (46% cash, 54% shares).
Average severance payment: HSBC fired 34 MRTs (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) in 2024, who received $798k each in severance, on average.
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of investment bank MRTs rose from 508 to 535, a 5% increase. Average salaries went from $631k per head to $611k per head, a 3% decrease. Average bonuses went from $772k per head to $738k per head, a 4% decrease. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.40m to $1.35m, a 3% decrease.
Distribution of staff earning over €1m:
Salaries and bonuses at Deutsche Bank in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 609 investment bank MRTs at Deutsche Bank in 2024.
Average salary: The average Deutsche Bank investment bank MRT earned $957k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average Deutsche Bank investment bank MRT earned $1.1m in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average Deutsche Bank investment bank MRT earned $2.1m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average Deutsche Bank MRT (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) earned just 51% of their bonus in cash (76% deferred); 48% were in shares (86% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average Deutsche Bank MRT’s (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) bonus was 81% deferred (48% cash, 52% shares).
Average severance payment: Deutsche Bank fired 77 MRTs (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) in 2024, who received $625k each in severance, on average.
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of investment bank MRTs fell from 649 to 609, a 6% decrease. Average salaries went from $820k per head to $957k per head, a 17% increase. Average bonuses went from $704k per head to $1.1m per head, a 58% increase. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.5m to $2.1m, a 43% increase.
Distribution of staff earning over €1m:
Salaries and bonuses at BNP Paribas in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 824 CIB MRTs at BNP in 2024.
Average salary: The average BNP CIB MRT earned $576k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average BNP CIB MRT earned $781k in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average BNP CIB MRT earned $1.4m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average BNP CIB MRT earned just 49% of their bonus in cash (76% deferred); 49% were in shares (62% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average BNP CIB MRT’s bonus was 61% deferred (50% cash, 50% shares).
Average severance payment: BNP fired 50 MRTs (including, but not limited to, the CIB) in 2024, who received $562k each in severance, on average.
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of CIB MRTs fell from 877 to 824, a 6% decrease. Average salaries went from $532k per head to $576k per head, a 8% increase. Average bonuses went from $672k per head to $781k per head, a 16% increase. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.2m to $1.4m, a 13% increase.
Distribution of staff earning over €1m:
Salaries and bonuses at Société Générale in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 347 investment bank MRTs at SocGen in 2024.
Average salary: The average SocGen investment bank MRT earned $518k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average SocGen investment bank MRT earned $711k in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average SocGen investment bank MRT earned $1.2m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average SocGen investment bank MRT earned just 50% of their bonus in cash (57% deferred); 50% were in shares (57% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average SocGen investment bank MRT’s bonus was 57% deferred (50% cash, 50% shares).
Average severance payment: SocGen fired 19 MRTs (including, but not limited to, the investment bank) in 2024, who received $863k each in severance, on average.
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of investment bank MRTs rose from 379 to 347, a 8% decrease. Average salaries went from $447k per head to $518k per head, a 16% increase. Average bonuses went from $611k per head to $711k per head, a 16% increase. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.06m to $1.2m, a 16% increase.
Distribution of staff earning over €1m:
Salaries and bonuses at UBS in 2024
Number of regulated staff: There were 835 KRTs at UBS in 2024.
Average salary: The average UBS KRT earned $659k in fixed compensation in 2024.
Average bonus: The average UBS KRT earned $1.4m in variable compensation in 2024.
Average compensation: The average UBS KRT earned $2.0m in total compensation in 2024.
Bonus breakdown: The average UBS KRT earned just 42% of their bonus in cash (none deferred); 58% were in shares (94% deferred).
Deferred bonus: The average UBS KRT’s bonus was 58% deferred (100% shares).
Changes in compensation, 2023 vs 2024: The number of KRTs fell from 1038 to 835, a 20% decrease. Average salaries went from $487k per head to $659k per head, a 35% increase. Average bonuses went from $666k per head to $1.4m per head, a 110% increase. Compensation as a whole therefore went from $1.15m to $2.0m, a 77% increase.
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