London city bonuses stay strong despite credit crunch

The bonuses of most London City workers have remained intact this year despite the impact of the credit crunch, a recruitment firm claimed today.

Two-thirds of City workers were happy with their payout this year, according to a survey by financial services specialist Morgan McKinley.

Around 80% of staff in middle and back office roles received a similar or bigger bonus compared to last year, while 71% of financial services firms said their bonus pots were the same or bigger than 2007.

Although the bonus season among the City’s 350,000 workers is still under way, the findings contrast with recent warnings from the Centre for Economics and Business Research of a 16% decline in bonuses to £7.4bn (€9.9bn).

Robert Thesiger, chief executive of Morgan McKinley parent company Imprint, said: “Speculation surrounding this year’s bonuses was enormous, given the significant volumes of write-downs by banks in the last quarter of the year.

“Putting the impact of the credit crunch aside, 2007 was still a strong year for financial services and for the majority bonus payouts appear to reflect this.”