The bank that pays the most…

Posted by Marc Hodak on January 23, 2011 under Executive compensation | Be the First to Comment

…performs the best.  At least that was the surprise finding about Morgan Stanley in 2010:

Morgan Stanley, the come-from-behind champion of 2010 league tables, was one of the few bulge-bracket banks to swell both ranks and pay last year.

The firm added 2,048 workers, a 3.4% increase, while setting aside an additional $1.6 billion, or 11%, to pay its staff, according to its earnings release this morning.

The average Morgan Stanley employee took home $256,596, up 7.5% from $238,602 in 2009. The bank was more generous than analysts had expected. Rivals Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan trimmed per-worker pay in 2010.

Obviously, one can’t generalize to say that any firm that bumps up its pay is bound to bump up its performance.  But in a year where the competition for talent in financial services took a back seat to looking good for the regulators and media, Morgan Stanley competed more aggressively, and, well I’m just saying…