New York (HedgeCo.net) – More than six in 10 (62%) of financial markets professionals surveyed by eFinancialCareers.com expect their bonus this year will be higher or the same in comparison to the bonus they earned in 2010.
The Dodd-Frank Act continues to remain rooted in the minds of financial markets professionals. Asked about the recent layoffs on Wall Street and whether Dodd-Frank’s weighting of compensation toward base salary rather than bonuses played a role, a majority (52%) agree the Act has contributed to the downsizing.
The 2011 eFinancialCareers Bonus Expectations Survey took place in the United States between September 20 and October 3, 2011 with 1,098 currently employed financial markets professionals responding.
Personal performance (45%) and firm performance (22%) hold sway as the primary reasons driving anticipated year-end bonus increases. Among the 30 percent of respondents who report expecting decreased bonuses at year’s end (a figure up sharply from last year’s 20 percent who expected smaller bonuses) firm performance (40%) and market conditions (35%) stand out as the most-cited primary causes.
Asked to make a prediction about bonuses sizes over the next three years, 46% say they expect bonuses to decrease in the future, up from 30 percent a year ago. On the flip side, 20 percent say they expect bonuses to increase between now and 2014, a decline from 34 percent last year. Market conditions dominated the list of factors pressuring compensation, followed by the Dodd-Frank Act and voluntary restraint by firms.
One response has remained almost perfectly stable year to year: the majority of Wall Street professionals (59% in 2011, versus 61% in 2010) tell us that money, while important, isn’t the most important reason why they work in the financial markets. The remainder (39%, versus 37% last year) say compensation is the most important reason to work on Wall Street. Again, a mere two percent indicate that compensation is not important at all.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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