(Reuters) -Wall Street bonuses in 2022 are expected to fall 22% from last year’s payout bonanza, according to a report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, as tough economic conditions pressured dealmaking and underwriting.
Funds set aside for compensation have declined by 6.5% in the first half of 2022 as pretax profits halved to $13.5 billion, DiNapoli said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Ukraine war, inflation and tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve have forced businesses to go slow on M&A and listings, hurting investment banking which had a record run last year.
In 2021, the industry handed out the biggest bonuses to employees since 2006.
“The last two years of profits and bonuses fueled in part by the extraordinary federal response to the pandemic were not sustainable,” DiNapoli said.
The comptroller’s annual report on 2022 Wall Street bonuses will be released in March.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
