BofA (BAC) Plans to Keep 2020-end Bonus Flat Year Over Year

GS BAC JPM MS

Despite recording impressive performance at the sales and trading division during the year, Bank of America’s (BAC - Free Report) senior executives are planning for year-end bonuses similar to the previous year. The news was reported by Bloomberg.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in mid-March, trading revenues at almost all major Wall Street finance companies improved significantly, driven by the substantial rise in market volatility along with higher client activity.

Thus, given the impressive trading performance, traders at Wall Street were expecting heavy raises this year. However, BofA’s plan of keeping bonuses flat has come as a shock for all Wall Street traders.

Notably, at the end of the first nine months of this year, BofA recorded total sales and trading revenues of $12.01 billion, increasing 21.2% year over year. Fixed income, currencies and commodities trading revenues improved 22.8%, while equity trading revenues increased 18%.

Likewise, Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) recorded a 39% year-over-year increase in total sales and trading revenues at the end of the first nine months of 2020. For Goldman Sachs (GS - Free Report) , its Global Markets revenues witnessed a 49% year-over-year rise.

Wall Street biggie JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) recorded a 54% rise in fixed income markets revenues during the nine months ended Sep 30, 2020, while its equity markets revenues improved 33%.

Notably, BofA’s planning process is still in the early stages and the final bonus will be decided depending on how the bank performs in the final quarter of the year.

Over the past six months, shares of the company have gained 16.8% compared with 18.5% growth recorded by the industry.

Currently, BofA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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