Could a banker be ever paid like an accountant?

The future of banking culture and ultimately, what banks of the future will look like won’t depend on the moral attitudes of a new generation of executives rising through the ranks, but the relative attractiveness of working in the financial industry.

Eight years after the global financial crisis, bankers are still reviled by politicians and distrusted by regulators. But does that necessarily mean that remuneration for bankers will actually experience a real decline? Certainly, a new breed of investment banker representing a generation who were hired after 2008 will have lower salary expectations as they understand what it means to work in a highly regulated, risk-averse environment.

But those bankers who experienced banking culture in the ‘good old days’ when risk and leverage were high and proprietary trading almost guaranteed big payouts will be wondering if it is worthwhile to remain in banking anymore. Maybe joining a bunch of programmers in a financial technology start-up doesn’t look so bad.

There was a time when no one spoke of compliance and regulations. The early days of banking deregulation in the 1980s showed an industry exploding with newly found leverage, technology and proprietary trading.

A firm like Drexel Burnham Lambert would be hard to imagine today. It was painful to stomach back in the 80s. It emerged from Wall Street’s second tier to become a major innovator in high-yield, or junk, bonds. But Michael Milken was truly a financial pioneer, whose junk bonds were the foundation for creating today’s media conglomerates. When Rupert Murdoch was asked who he thought was the most important banker of his time, he instantly named Milken.