Aspiring M&A bankers hoping to bank the bucks should angle for a job at Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank or JPMorgan Chase, according to salary benchmarking site Emolument.com.
Entry-level M&A (mergers and acquisitions) bankers typically earn well over $100,000 at each of the three banks, based on salary and bonus data from 1,240 professionals working in London's financial district.
Factoring in salary and bonus, M&A analysts earn an average of £81,000 ($127,710) at Swiss bank Credit Suisse. This compares with £80,000 at Germany's Deutsche Bank and £75,000 at JPMorgan Chase, where college grads receive the second- and third-best total remuneration in the City of London.
M&A bankers advise clients on the financial benefits of possible mergers and acquisitions and coordinate and transact deals.
New grads usually enter banking at analyst level, often after completing an internship with the bank while at university. They will likely spend two years or more in the position, giving the bank most of their waking hours in return for some of the highest salaries around and a stepping stone into high finance.
On promotion to associate level, M&A bankers earn the best compensation at Morgan Stanley, according to Emolument.com. It found that associates at the U.S. behemoth were awarded total compensation of around £157,000 per year. Citigroup and Credit Suisse were also high payers, offering £141,000 and £137,000 respectively.
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If they reach managing director level, M&A bankers in the City are best off at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch or—once again—Credit Suisse. All of these offer total remuneration of over £800,000 to MDs, earning an average of £915,000 at JPMorgan Chase.
Credit Suisse's generous remuneration means its chief executive, Brady Dougan, earned just shy of 8 million euros ($10 million or £6 million) in 2013. This made him the fifth-best paid banking CEO in Europe, according to SNL Financial, lagging behind the heads of HSBC, Lloyds and UBS.
Anshu Jain, the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, came top, receiving a 10 million euro-pay package in 2013, according to SNL Financial.