eFinancialCareers

Forget the sub-prime crisis, Australia’s bankers still expect to cash in with higher bonuses this year.

Our survey of 20,270 global bankers found that 50.3% of those based in Australia expect to receive higher bonuses this year, with only 8.3% expecting their bonuses to be lower than the bumper payouts of 2006.

23% of Aussie respondents expected their bonuses to increase by less than 10%, and 10% expected bonuses to rise more than 50%.

Australia’s bankers were more optimistic than the survey elsewhere in the world, with a global average of 14% expecting their bonuses to fall.

Swelling bonuses may have something to do with the fact that Aussie bankers are still paid less than their global counterparts.

The survey also unearthed that the average Australian banker received a bonus equivalent to just 35.1% of his/her salary in 2006 – this compared to 76% in Hong Kong and 58% in the US.

Globally, equity capital markets and M&A bankers are the most optimistic of the optimists when it comes to predicting this year’s bonuses.

Unsurprisingly, debt capital markets and credit focused bankers are the most pessimistic (although, even here, 45.2% still anticipate an increase of some kind).