According to NY Times' Suzanne Craig: Buffeted by lackluster profits and turmoil in the global markets, Wall Street is bracing for one of the worst bonus seasons in recent memory. But in the alchemy of high finance, bankers are hoping to turn the slump to their advantage. Financial firms are preparing to dole out huge amounts of stock at depressed prices, the value of which could rise substantially in a few years.
“This year is the perfect situation where they can say it is a modest bonus season, but in the end, it could end up making many of them zillionaires,” said Jonathan R. Macey, a professor of corporate law and finance at Yale. ”Not all banks may do well in the long run, but most will.”
Even by Wall Street’s lofty standards, the compensation outlook this year is pretty bleak. Financial firms like Goldman Sachs , Bank of America and Citigroup are culling their ranks, and the remaining employees are resigning themselves to smaller year-end checks, at least in terms of the dollar amount. By some estimates, bonuses could shrink by as much as 30 percent this year.
But a large portion of those payments will be in stock, rather than cash….
Read more about it at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/modest-bonus-year-on-wall-st-but-stock-could-yield-fortunes/?ref=business
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