Top bankers at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan got bonuses as high as $15 million this week after last year’s flurry of dealmaking — and investors aren’t happy.
Bank stocks fell sharply even with the bumper year for mergers and stock offerings after they reported sharply higher expenses — in large part because of the fat pay packages they’re doling out in a tight labor market.
The pool for bonuses for investment bankers jumped by more than 30 percent among big banks when compared to last year’s, resulting in a series of eye-popping, eight-digit pay packages for top dealmakers, according to industry analysts.
With the best performers hauling in $15 million and high-performing managing directors on the next rung down taking in as much as $7 million each, people familiar with the matter told On the Money. And even some mid-tier roles at Goldman — like vice presidents — made north of $1 million in bonuses, those people said.
Even as investors recoil, banks insist compensation as a percentage of revenues has stayed consistent. Investment banking revenue was up 58 percent at Goldman and 39 percent at JPM compared to last year’s hauls.
“When you’re in a business that basically doubles profits, paying 30 percent to 40 percent more in bonuses isn’t a big deal,” argued one bank insider to On the Money.
Banks don’t divulge how large each employee’s bonus is — and insiders are quick to note every person receives a different award based on the market for a given job and the person’s performance. “You have to do the math for every person individually,” one source told The Post.
On top of the multimillion-dollar bonuses, partners at Goldman Sachs got even more: an extra payout that could add millions of dollars to their take-home pay, according to a report, though the amount of the additional bonuses isn’t clear.
“The partners are pretty happy — people worked really, really hard, so they’re happy Goldman paid up,” a source close to Goldman told The Post.
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan both declined to comment.
The boom in deals has pushed investment banking revenue higher, but also led to major burnout among analysts and associates, with the big banks raising base pay — in some cases multiple times — this year to compete for workers.
Goldman shares plummeted earlier this week after the elite bank reported it spent 31 percent more on compensation this year than last. Its stock was down more than 10 percent this week compared to the broader market’s 5.6 percent drop. Meanwhile, JPMorgan’s also reported higher operating costs. Its stock was down 9.8 percent.
