Wall Street Bonuses Surpass City of London in 2025 as Growth Falls Short of Expectations
Wall Street bankers have leapfrogged ahead of their City of London counterparts in the annual bonus race, according to fresh data from jobs platform Efinancialcareers. The industry's swelling bonus pot proved "far less impressive" than prior bullish expectations, with overall growth undershooting projections.
Bonus Figures Reveal Transatlantic Shift
In the United States, the average bonus reached $154,344 (£114,000) in 2025, marking a 5.85 per cent increase from the previous year. This growth rate topped the industry average of 4.4 per cent. Meanwhile, back in the City of London, bonus growth lagged behind at just 3.5 per cent, with typical awards coming in at $154,215.
"Bonus expectations were bullish," the Efinancialcareers report stated. "When we asked how much our audience were expecting their bonuses to rise by in the fourth quarter of 2025, they said 50 per cent. The reality was far less impressive."
Record Banking Profits Fuel Elevated Expectations
Expectations had been elevated by a record-breaking year for banking giants, with global titans pocketing unprecedented profits. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, total profit at 4,300 US banks reached a historic $300 billion.
Deutsche Bank bankers pocketed the biggest compensation boost, with total compensation jumping 31 per cent. At Barclays, average bonus change was 11 per cent, with some "material risk takers" seeing their average bonus rise to £900,000. HSBC's average change was also 11 per cent, though it remained the lowest-paying bank in the survey despite its bonus pot swelling to an over-decade high of $4 billion after the bank landed a profit of $29.9 billion in 2025.
Buy-Side Firms Dominate Bonus Battle
Buy-side firms, including hedge funds and private equity giants, dominated the bonus competition with a far higher average increase than traditional lenders at 7.5 per cent.
"The buy-side had a good 2025," the report noted, revealing that hedge funds reached a record high for assets under management of $5 trillion in October 2025. Returns also averaged around the 12.5 per cent mark, hitting the highest levels since 2009.
Post-Brexit Bonus Landscape
Wall Street's return to the lead follows City bankers booking the sector's top bonuses in 2024, after the lifting of pay restrictions previously imposed by the European Union. Last year, UK workers pocketed an average $149,000 bonus, compared to the US figure of $145,800.
Top executives at British banks received significant pay boosts after the UK government scrapped EU bonus cap rules in 2023. The cap had restricted bonuses to 100 per cent of fixed salary, or 200 per cent with shareholder approval. This measure was originally implemented to discourage high-risk decision-making by senior bankers following the financial crisis.
While remaining EU states must maintain the cap, post-Brexit Britain eliminated the restriction under Kwasi Kwarteng's brief Chancellorship, aiming to attract senior bankers back to London. The banking watchdog also launched reforms late last year to allow bankers to collect their bonuses much sooner. New rules will permit part-payment of bonuses for the most senior bankers from year one, rather than year three under previous regulations.
