ISSUE
01
2024
Investment Banking Division Outlook
AS IT
HAPPENED
 Bonus scene
 US Banks Commentary
BONUS
 Down by 15 to 40% in total com-
pensations
 Bonus from 0 to 6 months
TREND
 Significant revenue are built
around Asia ex-China
 Particular APAC countries stood
out from the mix during the con-
ceded another “bad year”
HIRE OR FIRE?
 Staff reduction is said to continue
 Cost cutting policies and actions
from the Investment Banking
leaders
 Base salary, bonus, promotions
will be impacted
The bonus pools across banks in 2023 have plum-
meted further year-on-year without a surprise. As of
now, there is no obvious indicator of a “bounce back” in
the Investment Banking Division business, at least for
the traditional sector and product teams who had taken
advantages from the ECM boom in 2021.
Total compensations for majority of bankers’ have
continued to suffer, where bonuses for Directors and
Managing Directors had been impacted more heavily.
The average payout for Vice Presidents have gone
down for underperforming teams. Associates and Ana-
lysts are largely protected.
Redundancy plans across banks are carried on as
active cost management continued to take place.
Banks have “headcount freeze” or “headcount neutral”
strategies with little or no intention to add any re-
sources. If any, talent acquisition would be around up-
grading. They are focused solely on revenue genera-
tion for Directors and above level bankers, in Southeast
Asia, India and Korea for instance.
US BANKS COMMENTARY
Citigroup still consists of large teams across their
Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory division, despite
several officers departures from both sectors and capi-
tal market teams. Their bonus pool was down year-on-
year by up to 40%, although there are outliers from non-
China focused individuals. On the positive side, promo-
tions were granted for new Vice Presidents, Directors
and Managing Directors.
Goldman Sachs had a difficult 2023 with probably
the greatest number of cuts across the China busi-
ness, with up to 100 bankers losing their jobs.
Underperforming teams include China Advisory, ECM
and TMT. Fortunately, bonus was not all bad news.
Justified compensations were seen for high perform-
ers, Analysts and Associates are seen to be protected
as well, some were paid flat or even up year-on-year.
Regarding staff management, we are seeing the
grouping of junior talent pools across sectors to fully
utilize junior resources. There were still promotions for
Managing Directors and Executive Directors.
JP Morgan has no doubt suffered from last year,
aligned with its competitors. However, their India, Ja-
pan, Korea coverage has aided some of their Asia rev-
enues as many transactions were seen from ECM and
M&A. Overall bonuses were 5-10% higher than its US
competitors. On the personnel front, we are seeing sev-
eral internal transfers of bankers within the bank, such
as from Capital Markets to Private Banking and be-
tween sector teams. They are seen in levels between
Vice President and Managing Director. Nonetheless,
there were still Managing Directors and Team Heads
who were made redundant from the bank.
Morgan Stanley has gone through another tough
year, as China banking, one of their major revenue con-
tributors, continued to underperform. Their China reve-
nue had shrunk below 25% of their total APAC revenue
in 2023. Above 30% of their Executive Directors and
above staff suffered from zero bonus. No Executive Di-
rectors were pay over USD 600k in total compensa-
tions. From personnel side, promotions are delayed for
some Senior Vice Presidents. Headcount neutral strat-
egy will likely continue for at least this year. The bank
will look to regain their ECM and China position
amongst competitors.
Investment Banking Division Outlook

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