By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America’s bonus fund for investment bankers will likely increase 10 percent over the past year, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

While the average increase will be 10 percent, some investment bankers will get smaller payouts in the mid-to-high digits, while other top performers would top the 10 percent range, two other sources told Reuters.

The bonuses will be paid in February after the bank reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 16, one of the sources said.

Global banks have benefited from a surge in business recruitment in the past year, driven by mergers and acquisitions and increased underwriting of bonds and stocks.

Bloomberg previously reported on BofA’s increases.

BofA Securities ranked third in global investment banking fee deals in the fourth quarter, with revenue of $1.4 billion, up sharply from $958 million in the same period in 2023, according to Dealogic data.

Compensation consultant Johnson Associates said in November that Wall Street firms are expected to pay higher bonuses for 2024, the first increase since a very busy year in 2021.

Payments are likely to rise after financiers benefited from several factors in recent months: a recovery in transactions, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut and equity markets rising to record highs , said the consultancy’s founder, Alan Johnson.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar, Editing by Lananh Nguyen)