Bonus angst at Macquarie

Macquarie Group is apprehensive over the likelihood of higher than usual level of turnover among its senior staff in a few weeks, following disappointment at bonuses, the Financial Review reported.

In its Chanticleer column the newspaper reported that the group is "in danger of losing more than 50 bankers in the northern hemisphere" many of them at the division director and executive director level.

The bank's bonus structure is said to be less generous than those of rival firms in many markets (where huge bonuses for bankers are sharp political issue). Macquarie's lower bonuses are a function of the rigid rules applied to bonus arrangements across the firm.