UK
Listening to Vikram Pandit, you wouldn’t necessarily believe it, but Citigroup may be emerging as one of this year’s (selectively) biggest payers.
Pandit is seeking distance himself from the $100m pay package that Andrew Hall at Phibro is legally entitled to this year, but it would appear that he is all for rewarding the smaller man.
At BarCap’s banking conference this week, Vikram made it clear that the emphasis is now on retaining and recruiting talent. Despite US government threats to make public the packages and possibly even the names of the bank’s 25 highest earners, Pandit also emphasized the fact that the bank is free to pay what it pleases to its remaining 278,975 employees.
An article in today’s Wall Street Journal suggests it’s doing just that. The paper reports that when BarCap and Citi competed to hire the same equities salesman, BarCap lost – despite offering a 1.8m package.
Equities headhunters confirm that Citi’s emerged as a big payer. “They have put some substantial guarantees in front of people, often at above market rates,” says one.
Citi was said to give generous guarantees to two hires in equities and equity derivatives in June. Headhunters say the figures it paid in that case were higher than those reported.
The bank is also said to have paid substantial packages to the equity research team it hired in August.
Citigroup’s problem appears to be that it cut too deeply. Between the first and second quarters of 2009, 30,000 staff were removed, leaving headcount down 90,000 from its peak. Equity research is a case in point: according to Financial News, Citigroup has hired at least 20 equity researchers in Europe this year. However, it was pruning the equity research function as recently as 2008.
“They got rid of too many people and have now realized that in order to stay competitive they need to hire the best people they can,” says one headhunter. “And (as a TARP bank) to do that they need to pay well and they need to offer guarantees.”
i work VP in FX Sales and was offered gbp 350k (120 plus 230) to go to Citi. they don’t pay that well.
crowy what is normal for your level? are you a top performer? if yes why don’t you get 1 m + gbp?
crowy, grow up!
What makes you so special to earn so much?
crowy who was the headhunter?
Oh please……. Get a life
dave… thats not special. You wanna earn 300-500k? I can tell you in banking its easy. (and really not that much). You just need to get lucky and be good at networking and selling yourself. I’m a banker myself, (trading) and sometimes I wonder what it is I get paid so much for. The truth is, its so easy to value what we do. And in current climate fortunately its very easy to ‘make money’. Is it fair we get paid more than pilots, some doctors etc? probably not, but is easier to account for the millions of profit being part of the global markes where we handle in trillions each year. And does it make us special? no, rather fortunate. Truth is, many out there could do my job. 100% sure. With some education and on job training. But there are more people lookin for the jobs than there are jobs. And thats where networking comes in. its all about roll of dice and who you know. Once you are in,, unless you are an imbesill, you can make yourself a nice earning, and if someone is offering you the cash, who would turn it down?
Normal level for vp fx sales i say is less than GBP350,000
I started at a euro ib and now work at a bulge bracket US house (VP) and made slightly less than that last year. Then again 2008 wasn’t a great year for pay in banking!
Most desks have had a good year 2009 (particularly corporate) so i’d expect around this level come January…!
ps Citi salaries are now some of the best on the street; 120k base is more than some MDs at other banks
GBP350k IS a lot of money, even in banking. (let’s call it $580k for compariosn to US houses)
compare this to the average comp numbers at bulge bracket firms (if u believe the numbers) and you’re there or thereabouts. but these numbers are skewed hugely by a huge numbers of managing directors and the like earning millions of USD.
i work in equity sales at a bank in london and earned less than 350k last yr having been doing this for 10 years
dave – not special, i thought implication was that 350,000 is not a lot
or maybe this is facetious?
but lots of good traders are making 350k just as a bonus. add to this a 100k salary and i think 450k is a better median pay for a vp/director. top performers or those with responsibility for others can earn twice this. i think the figures for those earning > 1m can be inflated. there was some research posted on here some time ago i think regarding US houses and the number of IB employees earning upwards of USD 1 mio and it actually wasn’t that many.
mediocreearner, i’m a junior fx options trader, what asset class are you in, fx options? if so then lets network!!
Hi Guys,
This may be slightly at a tangent from the general discussion, but I was wondering if you could give me an indication as to how you got into these front office areas in the first place. As a recent MSc graduate in Economics and Finance this is the area I want to be in, but I was wondering which way is best to achieve this.
I honestly can’t believe what i am reading here. How can anyone say that 350,000 pounds per year is not a lot of money? By any measure this is a huge wage, and facilitates a standard of living that 99% of the population can only dream of.