COVID-driven Divide Emerges on Wall Street as Bonus Season Looms

“The majority of professionals at traditional and alternative asset firms as well as retail and commercial bankers will see smaller bonuses,” said the firm’s managing director, Alan Johnson. “Conversely, fixed income pros will be rewarded handsomely as uncertainty and high volatility contributed to record trading.” Hedge funders will have a check about 5 percent to…

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The Giant Schism in Asset Management Paychecks

Experts see a small pay cut coming for executives at traditional asset managers, hedge funds, and private equity shops, particularly at smaller firms, given disruption in the underlying economy because of the coronavirus. The predicted five-to-10 percent compensation drop would make for two down years in a row, according to Johnson Associates’ third-quarter report on…

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Fired Bankers’ Job Prospects Fade With Firms Under Pressure to Cut Costs

“Financial services and banking has too many people,” said Alan Johnson, the head of compensation-consulting firm Johnson Associates Inc., who predicts the industry’s headcount will shrink 10% by mid-2021 from its level as the pandemic began. “Next year is going to be very low hiring. There’ll be some layoffs.” One silver lining for job hunters…

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Banks Warn Bonuses Will Not Keep Pace with Profits

“This is the first time since the financial crisis that we’ve had such a dramatic difference between parts of the big banks,” said Alan Johnson, founder of New York-based pay consultancy Johnson & Associates, referring to the gulf in the performance of the banks’ retail business and their advisory and trading divisions… Johnson said issues…

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Hartford to Offer Buyouts, Cut Hundreds of Staffers

Hartford anticipated about $70 million in severance costs in the third quarter, according to its second-quarter results. “They’re probably looking at getting whole head count down 10% or 12%” through both buyouts and layoffs, says Alan Johnson, president of compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates… The fact that the pandemic now appears likely to stretch well…

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Wells Fargo Targeting Up to 25% of Workforce in Mass Layoffs

Alan Johnson, managing director of New York-based compensation consultant Johnson Associates Inc., said that Wells Fargo’s announced cost-cutting plan will hurt the firm from a recruitment perspective, including in asset management. “It’s not just the cost cutting, but years of instability at the bank,” since the 2016 sales scandal surfaced, he said. “It’s just one…

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Even Wall Street’s Biggest Bonuses Will Disappoint This Year

Equities traders at major U.S. banks largely succeeded in navigating the most tumultuous markets in a generation as the pandemic triggered lockdowns in March and sent stocks swooning, only to later rebound. But that performance was soon overshadowed by fixed-income trading. Federal Reserve intervention in credit markets helped banks arrange a slew of fundraisings for…

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