Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley people complain of poor bonuses away from the front office
Bank of America excepted, US banks have announced their bonuses for 2025. If you work in M&A they seem to have been strong. But if you work in a support role, a new feebleness has appeared.
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At Morgan Stanley, where Asian bankers reportedly received 20% bonus increases and London bankers received uplifts of 15%, insiders say mid-ranking operations staff were greeted with less favourable news when their bonuses were announced.
"We were told that the compensation plan architecture had changed for VPs and above and that we'd get a smaller bonus and higher base pay," says one Morgan Stanley operations insider. "It soon became clear that this wasn't the case - many of us received no base salary increase and were told we were at the upper end of the pay range."
Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
At Goldman Sachs, people say that bankers received fine bonuses but that markets professionals were less happy and that engineering and operations bonuses were "hit badly." The firm also declined to comment.
Poor bonuses can be a catalyst for quitting jobs. When staff leave voluntarily, banks don't have to pay severance.
Roles in technology, operations and the middle office are particularly susceptible to automation. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said last week that the bank has replaced 2,000 technologists with AI, and that BofA has cut headcount in the finance team using a "series of prompts." Notably, AI does not require a salary or a bonus.
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