A 25pc bonus increase is not enough for these poor dears
It should come as no great surprise that 33 per cent of the city's finance professionals were dissatisfied with their 2010 bonus. Indeed the surprise is that anyone admitted to being satisfied. Many in the industry have got showing bonus displeasure down to a finely honed art.
This displeasure is detailed in the global bonus survey compiled by eFinancialCareers, which shows the level of displeasure is more or less the same in Singapore, Australia, the United States and Britain. Yet Hong Kong stands out as having the biggest percentage increase over 2009 with a 25 per cent rise. Singapore and Australia both had 13 per cent gains, the US minus 5 per cent and Britain 5 per cent.
The survey's authors forecast considerable upheaval in the business in Hong Kong, with 58 per cent expecting to change positions this year, 45 per cent of them looking to change firms and 13 per cent looking to change positions within their existing firms.
On average, sell-side professionals, ie the brokers, got a bonus some 48 per cent bigger than those on the buy side, according to the survey. Overall, 74 per cent of finance professionals' pay rose 31 per cent in 2010. And they are unhappy, poor dears. They will tell us that they work so hard. But if their track record over the past few years is any guide, the harder they work the more they screw the place up for the rest of us.
Cathay chief's highs and lows