Wall Street opens wallet to keep talent, it’s not always enough

It didn’t matter that Citigroup paid Amy Wu Stratton $450,000 in 2021 — her most lucrative year ever — to work with some of its biggest private equity clients. It didn’t even matter that she was on track for a promotion that could double her pay.

After almost 16 years in banking, she was ready for something new.

“I was just so tired of it. It wasn’t making me happy,” said Stratton, 45, a former director in a Citi division that worked on financing and risk management for deals.

A job she loved had become a hamster wheel, she said — an unfulfilling chase for more money and promotions.

“You don’t have time to breathe,” Stratton said. “The pandemic slowed me down and made me take stock.”

Up and down Wall Street, droves of bankers are changing jobs — switching banks, moving to investment firms, taking equity stakes in financial technology companies or cryptocurrency startups — and sometimes getting out altogether. Pandemic-inspired ennui, blockbuster profits and a war for talent across the industry have accelerated the job churn at the country’s big banks.

“People are exhausted,” said Alan Johnson, the managing director of Johnson Associates, a Wall Street compensation consultancy. The ranks of those earning $10 million or more will grow amid competition for top performers after a bumper year for earnings, Johnson said, but “money doesn’t always make you happy.”

Stratton left Citi in June, moved by social upheaval: the Black Lives Matter protests, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and an increase in anti-Asian attacks. She and two partners are developing a website, myasianvoice.com, for Asian women who are focused on careers and social impact.

It was an obvious choice, said Stratton, a Chinese immigrant whose Manhattan co-op and Wall Street rewards had already exceeded her humble upbringing in a rural village that lacked running water.

“I was so happy to get out of that thinking of always having more and more,” she said.

Itchy feet have forced big banks to open their wallets: The combined compensation costs of the nation’s six largest lenders rose 12% to nearly $178 billion in 2021.

Goldman Sachs gave special stock awards to about 30 top executives and some 400 partners to help retain them. Bank of America bumped up salaries for thousands of senior and midlevel investment bankers and handed out stock awards to its rank-and-file. Even junior analysts across the industry have seen their typical base pay rise to $100,000 or more, from about $85,000.

In many cases, the banks are fighting among themselves for talent. Sarah Youngwood, the finance chief for JPMorgan Chase’s consumer-banking division since 2016, will become chief financial officer at the Swiss bank UBS in May. She’ll join an executive team whose members made an average of $9.5 million in 2020, according to UBS’s most recent compensation report.

Other bankers who are moving to rivals spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. One sacrificed his bonus to leave, but the new firm covered his lost earnings and gave him a role with more responsibility. Another with decades of experience was lured away by a competitor to build a new business, shedding what he felt was the frustrating bureaucracy of his old firm.

But the wealth of opportunities extends well beyond direct competitors.

Stephen M. Scherr, who left his post as finance chief at Goldman Sachs at the end of December, quickly pivoted to the helm of Hertz. He earned $38 million in 2019 and 2020, even after being docked $7 million for Goldman’s role in raising money for a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund looted by a former prime minister and his inner circle. At Hertz, Scherr will get a base salary of $1.5 million and more than 12 million shares of company stock that vest over several years if he meets targets.

Sayena Mostowfi, 44, took over as president of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, an upstart equities exchange, this month. Mostowfi, a former global chief operating officer of electronic equities at Citi, said she had jumped at the chance to build a new business.

“What’s great about working at a smaller company is there’s a direct correlation between the effort that you put into the work that you’re doing and the results that you get,” she said. “I’m willing to bet that being at a startup will bring better results for me than being at a bank.”