More than 80 per cent of workers in London's financial services industry expect a bonus for 2012 with almost half saying it will likely be higher than last year, according to a survey released today.
Four in 10 felt less confident about their performance-related pay compared with 2011, and over half saw industry bonuses falling in the next three years, eFinancialCareers said.
Among those expecting an increase, 39 per cent said it would be mainly because of their personal performance, 19 per cent said it was down to the company's performance, and 13 percent said it was due to a change of employer.
"Pay for performance is still ingrained in the culture of financial services in the City," said James Bennett, global managing director at eFinancialCareers.
"If people have performed well they still expect bigger bonuses."
Banks have been under pressure to limit bonuses to end a high-reward, high-risk culture blamed for the financial crisis.
A tough market environment and public and political pressure were the main reasons given by those expecting bonuses to fall across the industry.
The survey said 18 per cent of respondents did not expect a bonus this year, compared with 11 per cent last year and 7 per cent in 2010.
London's most upbeat finance professionals work for institutional asset management firms, where more than half of respondents expected a rise in their bonus.
The poll of 830 front, middle and back office staff also found workers were more concerned about companies voluntarily cutting pay in the long-term than by regulatory reform of the banking industry.
Reuters
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)