Asia-Pacific bankers expect their 2025 bonuses to jump 52.3%: survey

FINANCIAL service professionals in Asia-Pacific (Apac) are one of the most optimistic about their bonuses in 2025, with expectations that it will go up by 52.3 per cent, according to an eFinancialCareers survey released on Wednesday (Dec 18).

Across the globe, bankers are expecting a 50 per cent year-on-year increase in their bonus on average, which is typically paid out in the first quarter of 2025. This far outstrips the modest 6 per cent increase bankers expected in the same survey last year.

This is because 2024 marked a long-awaited turnaround in investment banking revenue. According to market intelligence provider Dealogic, revenues were up 27 per cent over the first nine months of the year.

EFinancialCareers, a careers platform for the financial services sector, recorded over 1,700 responses for the survey.

In Singapore, bankers could also be getting bumper bonuses this year, with profits across all three local banks hitting all-time highs over the same period. Their share prices have also reached multi-year peaks.

Nonetheless, bankers from the Middle East were even more optimistic than those from Apac, with an expectation of a 78.3 per cent increase in their bonuses.

Most of them were from Dubai and Abu Dhabi – the two major finance hubs in the United Arab Emirates.

The report noted that both places have seen huge inflows of people, investment and international attention. The optimism in Dubai is also attracting talent from elsewhere, with one portfolio manager in Hong Kong considering a move to the city next year even though he expects his bonus to double to US$300,000.

Professionals in North America were the least optimistic, with expectations that their bonuses would increase by 38.4 per cent in 2025.

However, the report noted that their comparative lack of optimism seems to go against the grain, as investment banking revenue in the region increased by 31 per cent, and is higher than anywhere else in the world.