Year-end bonuses, which include cash and equity awards, for most Wall Street workers will be lower this year than in 2019 due to the impact of COVID-19, Reuters reports . The decline in incentive payments marks the second consecutive year of mostly smaller awards.
- Incentive payments to retail and commercial banks will be hit most, with their incentive payments expected to fall by at least 20% to 30%
- Investment banking advisors will see their bonuses decline by about 15% to 20%.
- Payments to asset management, hedge funds, and private equity staffs will decline by about 5% to 10%
- Although incentive payment declined, fixed income sales and trading workers will see bonuses rise by 40% to 45%, while equities traders payouts will rise by 20% to 25% caused by volatile markets driving trading activity
- The pandemic will continue hurting the financial services sector in 2021, but to a lesser degree than in 2020
Traders keep an eye on the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, as XLF is currently down 1.74%
