00:002025 ended on a strong note, and the year ahead looks to be the momentum in terms of deals and
00:06trading. Both of those things is feeding into that bonus pool that you talk about. So in terms of the
00:15trading desks and M&A specifically, M&A has been, for investment bankers, the tepid environment that
00:22payouts have not been terrible, but you haven't seen this double-digit rise in that part of
00:29banking in a few years. Really, 2021, 2022 were the banner years for investment banking. Now we're
00:37starting to see more momentum that bankers are getting paid for the deals that they're putting
00:42the time and energy into. And for trading, volatility has really driven up revenue across
00:49the big banks. They're fulfilling more client orders, and because of that, the trading desks
00:56are getting paid for it. I need numbers. Like, give me an average, and then for a rainmaker like
01:02Paul, what would it be? So average, 10%. And we've been reporting for specifically J.P. Morgan,
01:09Goldman, Bank of America. Now, within those banks, there's some variation. We were trying to find
01:15kind of the general average. And for the rainmakers, to answer your question, some of those are going up
01:22to the 20% to, I had heard some rumors of 30% for the, like, real dealmakers, paymakers.
01:30Well, that's the, give me like a dollar figure, though.
01:32So, I mean, these bonuses, it really varies by bank.
01:35Sure.
01:36But if you think about the base salary, it's the bonus on top of your base salary that usually is
01:42the sweeter part of payout. It's going to depend on what stage of career the banker is in. If they're
01:51further along, it can stretch into the millions of dollars. And it's the bonus that could be the
01:57millions part and not necessarily your base salary. So again, that's the performance-based,
02:03how did your year end up? And then your salary is just the thing that's on the bottom of it.
02:08What has changed since my day was my day, my bonus was 90% to 95% of my year-end comp,
02:15my total comp was my bonus. So your salary was like 5%, 10% of your total ticket.
02:20Okay. Now that's changed. It's a higher percentage now.
02:22Your salary was your beer money.
02:24Exactly. It's exactly right. But you try to live on your salary and you save your bonus.
02:29That's the, or if you're other way, you just blow your bonus.
02:32But with four kids, I was in the save mode. But has that changed? Is there a higher base
02:36now these days, maybe a lower percentage?
02:38I do think that, I mean, that percentage that you just shared, I think the percentages,
02:43yes, have grown where bonuses are not 95% of your pay. That being said, the shift is still
02:52towards bonus over salary for many of these firms. And again, that is why there's the incentive to
03:01work hard that phrase of eat what you kill.
03:05Is the bonus also a retention sort of thing that retain your talent? You know,
03:10you don't want to lose this guy to, or woman to some other firm.
03:13So that's a huge, that's like the fine line that the banks need to walk is you want to pay your best
03:21talent, but they're also under a lot of pressure to keep their expenses in check. When these are
03:26public companies, they're reporting to their analysts and to the investor community and saying,
03:31hey, this is how much money that we're making. The profit that the banks made in 2025 was the
03:36strongest that we have seen in a while. So presumably they should be able to pay out their
03:42people for it, but they don't want to pay out so much that then their expense line is going to be
03:48under scrutiny and they're going to be held to a higher standard in future quarters where they're
03:53going to start answering questions like, you know, why is the expense as much higher than you
03:58projected or you have talked about in previous quarters?
04:01I'm going to develop an AI model to come up with the calculation for bonuses.
04:05I'm sure that this is something that, yes, they've already implemented for that.
04:09For the junior bankers listening out there and watching, here's the strategy. You go in with
04:13your deal sheet. This is the fees I generated this year. You got to pay me. As more important than
04:18that is going with the deal sheet for next year. These are my anticipated fees that I think I'm going to
04:23bring in and you don't want to lose me. You don't want to make me unhappy because this I think I can
04:28bring in. It's all about the year ahead. So real quick, 30 seconds. European banks don't pay as
04:35much as the U.S. banks, right? Not typically, but that's just because when you think about the U.S.,
04:40you have the New York market, so you're going to see higher salaries. And the U.S. banks, I think,
04:48are on a stronger foot right now in terms of the profit that they're pulling in. So those are the
04:52kind of the things you need to think about.
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