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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is the former global head of equity capital markets at Bank of America and is currently a managing director at Seda Experts.

In the TV show Seinfeldthe Costanza family celebrated a secular holiday at the end of the year called Festivus, which features unique traditions such as the “Airing of Grievances” and the “Feats of Strength”.

For investment bankers, their equivalent comes between mid-January and mid-February, when they are told their total compensation for the previous year.

When I started banking in the mid-nineties, “comp day” rivaled any holiday in drama and intensity. Doors are slammed, grown men (it’s mostly men) fight back tears, and champagne-soaked celebrants spill out into nearby bars. The entire floor shook with raw emotion.

Today comp day usually happens with all the ceremonies of visiting the local post office. The modern banker is summoned to the employer’s office by an email calendar invitation. The manager, armed with a spreadsheet and talking points reviewed by HR, delivers the news to monotony by Ben Stein’s economics teacher at Day Off by Ferris Bueller.

The script follows a precise formula. First comes the total compensation figure, followed by how it compares percentage wise to the previous year. Then the manager divides the bonus (or “variable compensation” in formal terms) into its parts: the immediate cash part and the amount paid in restricted stock. The vesting schedule for stock awards is explained in painstaking detail – which shares will vest in which years. The manager also announced the base salary for the coming year.

The meeting ended with a gentle blessing – from a metaphorical pat on the head about “recognizing your contribution” to a gentle admonition about “areas of improvement”.

The domestication of this ceremony can be attributed to various factors, not least the post-financial crisis regulatory reforms that have become a gradual payment of bonus bonanzas in banking. Higher base salary and the introduction of “paper based allowances” in Europe (to get around the EU bonus cap) means that the bonus is often not the make-or-break moment it used to be. Intense public scrutiny of bank fees has also forced a kind of prudential approach.

In addition, the elements of suspense and surprise are largely eliminated. As January rolled around, performance reviews showed the result, rumors of year-over-year changes in the comp pool spread, and leaks outpaced senior management’s efforts to contain them. Team leaders, on the other hand, manage expectations.

Of course, bankers still lobby, plan and grovel before comp day, dutifully filling out online self-assessments and touting their accomplishments. With large, cross-department teams managing deals, revenue attribution remains highly subjective, making it easy to claim credit for work that is virtually untouched.

But it’s a pretty good thing. Back in the prime, a senior partner famously presided over a 10-page PowerPoint deck, including a league table that was only “his” deal to show how badly the bench would rank without him. . When the story spread, it provoked a mixture of laughter, disbelief and grudging respect for the most gall. I doubt many today have the chutzpah to pull a stunt like that.

Even reactions are now sanitized. Modern bankers know any overt display – jubilation or anger – can be a weapon against them. Land is a big bonus? Feign mild disappointment; you don’t want the honchos to reconsider their generosity next year. Be tough? Offer a stoic nod and quietly request a follow-up conversation. The dramatic explosions of the first are (mostly) relics, like Gordon Gekko’s old one. Motorola phone brick. When I led teams, no direct report raised their voice or betrayed more than a glimmer of anger, even if their “count” was lacking.

Bankers know they are privileged, earning more than 99 percent of the population. But their sense of entitlement isn’t about absolute numbers – it’s about comparison. There is nothing more painful than feeling that a peer brings home more. If their comp doesn’t measure up, the relative the complaint became muffled bitterness.

Sometimes, you hear about a banker elsewhere who lost their temper after getting a “doughnut” (industry slang for zero) or a small bonus. These extraordinary eruptions only serve to emphasize how far we have come from the past storm and stress.

This change reflects broader changes in investment banking, where the swashbuckling culture of the past decades has given way to something more controlled and more conscious of optics and compliance. The annual bonus ritual has become another carefully managed corporate event, its rough edges smoothed by process, evolving office rules and institutional ethics.

So when you get your “number”, don’t close the door on your way out – it’s against workplace ethics policy, and your employer has grounds to take back your unplaced stock!