Money matters

Keir Macintosh may be contacted on tel: + 44 (0) 20 7269 1819; email: keirmacintosh@michaelpage.com; www.michaelpage.com. Alternatively, his colleague Lindsay Reid can be reached on tel: +44 (0) 7269 1848; email: lindsayreid@michaelpage.com

“All the talk is pay rises and bonuses at the moment,” Keir Macintosh, Director in charge of Compliance recruitment at Michael Page, City, observed when we met in mid January in the hedge fund quarter of London’s West End. “Yes, the buzz is whether people have been treated fairly,” agreed his colleague Lindsay Reid. News had begun filtering out of US banks, who told staff about their packages in December. “The European banks will follow and the Japanese houses inform their staff last and they receive their bonus and pay rises around April time,” said Macintosh. “Of course the benefit of not having salary discussions until later is that by then you should know what your counterparts in other firms are earning.”