New York bankers best paid, London at bottom: poll

06 April 2009 @ 08:59 am EDT

London bankers' mighty pay has fallen from the highest level among global financial centers to the lowest, with Wall Street financiers grabbing the top spot, a poll showed on Sunday.

Financial Chief Executives wait to speak to the media at the White House after a meeting about the economy with U.S. President Barack Obama in the State Dining Room in Washington, March 27, 2009. Obama meets with top U.S. bankers on Friday to hash out plans to reform Wall Street, rid financial institutions of bad debts and jumpstart lending in an effort to pull the United States out of recession.

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According to the survey across a range of businesses and countries by Napier Scott recruiters, London bankers saw an average drop of 62 percent in their salaries and bonuses for 2008, and took home 40 percent less in remuneration than their New York counterparts.

The pollsters noted that the devaluation of the British pound against both the dollar and the euro over the past year helped make London bankers' pay appear smaller.

Private bankers came out as overall winners, seeing the smallest drop in pay. Managing directors at top private banks across Britain, Switzerland, Russia and Dubai pocketed 510,000 pounds ($747,800) on average.

On the opposite end of the scale, pay in the structured credit business plummeted 86 percent.

Geographically, bankers in the Middle East took the smallest pay cuts, while Russian-based financiers were the hardest-hit.

Napier Scott conducts the survey, now in its eighth year, annually among nearly 4,000 bankers in the main financial centers.

($1=.6820 Pound)