RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Securities just announced the latest junior banker raises on Wall Street amid a battle to hang onto young talent
- RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Securities are the latest banks to announce raises.
- Investment bankers will receive higher pay and in RBC’s case, protected weekends and video-free Fridays.
- RBC is mandating vacation time for VPs, associates, and analysts, with two five-day weeks per year where they do not have VPN access.
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Two investment banks are joining the bevy of financial-services firms rolling out special perks and raises to hang onto junior talent.
After a year of heavy deal flow and the added headache of doing it all from home, many firms have been upping their pay while also talking about hiring more young investment bankers to help alleviate the crunch.
RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Securities both announced salary raises that impact juniors in their investment-banking division
RBC Capital Markets is bumping analyst pay by $10,000 and associate pay by $20,000, according to a social media post on the Instagram account @Litquidity, a popular Instagram account in the financial-services community. A spokesperson for RBC Capital Markets declined to comment to Insider on salary matters. The raises impact US employees and will go into effect in June, according to the post.
The spokesperson for the firm told Insider that RBC Capital Markets would implement some other benefits for employees, including:
- No internal video calls to be held before 9:30 a.m. or after 7 p.m.
- Fridays will be entirely video call-free, a policy previously highlighted by Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser at her bank
- Three-day long weekends once per year, which are designed to give bankers a chance to unplug from business
- Mandatory vacation time for vice presidents, associates, and analysts, including two five-day weeks per year where they take off and do not have VPN access
- The firm is also implementing “technology solutions to reduce the manual execution of repetitive tasks”
Guggenheim Securities also announced raises for analysts and associates
Meanwhile, the boutique investment bank Guggenheim Securities, a division of the financial-services firm Guggenheim Partners, is also rolling out raises, according to a post on Litquidity which was verified to Insider by a person with knowledge of the company’s internal announcement.
The plans were first announced on Tuesday, the person said, who requested anonymity to speak as they were not authorized to discuss Guggenheim Securities’ announcement.
Effective July 1, according to the Litquidity post, which shows a screenshot of an internal Guggenheim presentation, first-year analysts will see their salaries raised from $85,000 to $100,000 per year. Second-year analysts will see their salaries go from $90,000 up to $110,000, and third-years will see a bump from $95,000 to $125,000.
Associates, meanwhile, are going to receive $25,000 raises, per the breakdown in the post.
First-year associates will see pay go from $150,000 per year to $175,000. Second-years will go from $175,000 to $200,000; and third-years will go from $200,000 to $225,000.
Guggenheim Securities’ July 15 paycheck will include retroactive pay under new the pay scheme for 2021 YTD, according to the post.
A spokesperson for Guggenheim declined Insider’s request for comment.
Other Wall Street firms are giving big bonuses, hefty raises, and in some cases, perks like all-expenses-paid vacations, as Wall Street seeks to retain talent during a time of high demand for juniors.