Return of the million-dollar banker . . . and his sidekick, the new-look yuppie

Big bonuses are back in vogue in the City. Nic Cicutti reports

The million-pound City man is back. After several years of modest earning levels - in Square Mile terms at least - hundreds of top investment bankers, analysts and dealers are again enjoying salaries and bonuses of at least pounds 1m this year.

Poaching of individual staff, a common event that drives up salaries, has been supplanted by mass raids by at least one bigbank on its rivals. Other institutions are also recruiting select bands of financial specialists, driving up wages throughout the City as they scramble to join the top table of world banks.

The net effect has been to put salaries back up to the levels of 1993, when more than 100 top partners at the London offices of the US bank Goldman Sachs earned final-year bonuses of more than $1m (pounds 600,000) each.

"My guess is that by the end of this year there will be at least 1,000 dollar millionaires in the City, compared to half or two-thirds that amount three or four years ago, probably many more," one headhunter said yesterday. "A smaller minority will be million-pound men, maybe a few hundred people."

Below them are a rapidly growing number of thousands of executives at many top banks and securities houses whose earnings are comfortably in excess of pounds 250,000 a year. Inevitably, for junior members of a bank's research or equity team, there are also pay rises.

The increase in City salaries comes as figures from the Inland Revenue show that the number of people earning in excess of pounds 100,000 will have grown from 100,000 in 1993-94 to 130,000 next year. Those earning between pounds 50,000 and pounds 100,000 will also rise from 350,000 to 490,000 in the same period.

Unlike a few years ago, however, a feature of the City salary packages now is the guaranteed bonus. Instead of part of a person's remuneration being based on the employer's performance, it is alleged that potential recruits are being promised bonuses which are guaranteed several years hence.

The guilty player fingered by many other investment banks is Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, whom they accuse of driving up wages by picking off entire cohorts of key staff.

One prominent investment banking source said yesterday: "Deutsche . . . are openly boasting that they can take out who they like. The salaries they are paying can be at least two or three times what people were earning before.

"Their strategy is that rather than go out and buy a bank they will pay whatever it takes to pick up another's top team."

One hoped-for effect is that by taking out an entire rival's team, they fundamentally weaken its ability to conduct future business in the same area, another leading investment banker said. "In practice, we are having to promise our big hitters that if they stay with us they will earn much more than they would if Deutsche had not been nosing around."

One of those affected by Deutsche's recruitment strategy is the Swiss banking group UBS. Two senior members of its UK equities and research teams, both in their mid-30s, were recently lured to the German bank for salaries rumoured to be well over pounds 1m each, double what they were earning at UBS.

The Swiss have not taken this lying down. One of their recent recruits, John Bishop, global head of precious metals and commodity risk management at UBS, was recently won over from Rothschilds for a pay packet rumoured to be worth several millions of pounds.

Deutsche yesterday rejected its rivals' allegations: "There is a lot of nonsense talked about what we are doing. About 18 months ago we said that all our banking activities would be integrated in London under one brand name.

"We said that as part of the reorganisation, we would start recruiting on a selective basis to take us into the areas we wanted to expand in. That is exactly what we have done. We have recruited about 250 people world-wide, but we have probably lost about 200 staff.

"Our remuneration policy has been very consistent. We pay market levels and where appropriate we will pay a first-year guaranteed bonus."

A spokesman added that rumours of two- and three-year guaranteed bonuses were untrue: "In subsequent years, we pay the remainder of the first year's bonus as a way of helping to lock in our best staff."

Ironically, those suffering from Deutsche's poaching are not above playing the game. ING Barings, which recently suffered the loss of more than 50 of its South American specialists, is rumoured to be on the verge of picking up at least 10 members of another bank's South African team.

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