The banks with the best and worst working hours

Bankers work a lot. If you know anything about bankers, you know that they work a lot – and the fact that they’re paid a lot. But not all bankers have the same demands at work.

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That being said, it’s not always catastrophic. It’s difficult to pin down exactly how many hours to expect as a banker, as the exact number can vary significantly depending on country, bank, sector, seniority, and even what team exactly you’re part of in that bank.

Our 2024 Compensation & Lifestyle report, however, can help. Based on responses from over 2,500 professionals in the financial services sector, we put together estimates for how long 15 major banks expect their employees to work. 

Generally speaking? Well, a lot. The average working week across the sell-side (investment banks, for all functions) was 52.6 hours. This was higher than the global average working week across fintech, where it was 46.2 hours, and even the buy-side (private equity firms, hedge funds, and asset managers, among others), where the average was 49.2 hours.

Still, not all banks were made equal. There was significant variation between respondents from different banks in our survey. It’s important to remember that these numbers are global averages for their respective banks: they reflect all seniorities, roles, and locations. These are not “investment banker working hours”, but rather “working hours at investment banks”.

Some additional figures in this article are courtesy of Wall Street Oasis (WSO).

Working hours at Goldman Sachs

WSO data on average Goldman Sachs working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 55.8/week (-2.7%)

Goldman Sachs is famous for its working hours. The bank’s pandemic infamy led to analysts revolting against 100-hour weeks; and although these haven’t disappeared, things seems to have mellowed down. WSO hasn’t includes Goldman working hours figures in its industry report for years, but for the last year that WSO data was available (2022), GS’ people worked an average of 87.5 hours a week.

Working hours at JPMorgan

WSO data on average JPMorgan working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 54.8/week (-1.2%)

JPMorgan is also well known for its tough working hours. They got worse for junior bankers over the last year, to the extent that the bank stepped in and capped them to 80 hours “in most cases”. The bank even went so far as to guarantee one full weekend off… Per quarter. There you go. Mary Callahan Erdoes, JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management chief, noted a few years ago that if it takes 10,000 to master something, it should take a Wall Street junior just two and a half years working 12-hour days, six days a week. JPMorgan’s juniors will master things even quicker.

Working hours at Morgan Stanley

WSO data on average Morgan Stanley working hours: 78.0/week

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 52.3/week (+3.5%)

Morgan Stanley consistently works its bankers harder than any of its peers, according to WSO data, with only boutique banks really competing on that front. For what it’s worth, our data corroborated the brutal workloads: Morgan Stanley respondents to our report ranked their health, and especially their mental health, some of the worst in the industry. They had the lowest working hours reported of their American peers in our survey, although our survey is not limited to either front-office or American staff.

Working hours at Bank of America

WSO data on average Bank of America investment bank working hours: 73.8/week

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 53.5/week (+1.6%)

Last year was a bad time to work for Bank of America if you have a worrisome mother. The bank lost two employees in quick succession: New York-based DCM FIG associate Leo Lukenas, a green beret, and London-based credit trader Adnan Deumic. Although the bank denied allegations related to Lukenas, it was alleged that his team worked over 120 hours a week as a matter of course. Lukenas officially died of “acute coronary artery thrombus," the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said. This is essentially when a clot is formed inside a blood vessel of the heart, cutting off blood supply.

Working hours at Citi

WSO data on average Citi investment bank working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 53.8/week (-2.0%)

Citi is considered a bit softer on its working hours than its bulge bracket peers, but that might be changing soon. The bank has committed to a hybrid working policy, with two days a week WFH and three days a week in the office in London. The carrot might not be in the cake for very long, however; the bank has also been monitoring office days in that office, according to Financial News. 

Working hours at Barclays

WSO data on average Barclays investment bank working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 53.5/week (+0.9%)

Although Barclays is a European bank, it’s probably the most Americanized of them all, partly to do with its absorbing of Lehman Brothers all those years ago. The bank issued a memo earlier this year, the BBC reported, mandating three days a week in the office, up from the previous two. It was, however, the bank that employed the healthiest bankers on average, according to our compensation & lifestyle report.

Working hours at Deutsche Bank

WSO data on average Deutsche Bank investment bank working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 52.8/week (-0.1%)

Despite being a European (read: lazy, in American eyes) bank, Deutsche Bank’s hours were not significantly different to Atlantic peers in our report. We found that the average Deutsche employee worked longer hours than peers at Morgan Stanley, despite the latter’s more sharkish reputation for its front office staff. The implication could be that Deutsche Bank has high expectations of its non-revenue-generating staff in middle- and back-office functions.

Working hours at UBS

WSO data on average UBS investment bank working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 51.6/week (-0.8%)

UBS employees saw their hours creep downwards slightly in our report, despite a global trend upwards. Hours are likely to continue falling in the near future: the bank’s twin, Credit Suisse, which it absorbed in 2023 had more of a reputation than UBS ever did for “traditional” investment banking hours. As it sheds Credit Suisse people, it’s likely that UBS will return to its continental European roots and detach its own investment bank from Credit Suisse’s legacy.

Working hours at HSBC

WSO data on average HSBC investment bank working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 53.9/week (+0.4%)

HSBC had higher working hours than we expected. The London-based bank, which is heavily weighted towards Asia, is likely to get a bit “better” in terms of working hours in the long term: it’s cutting a substantial number of its advisory & capital markets operations in the Americas and Europe this year, which work significantly longer than other functions. The rebalancing will likely not mean a respite for Singapore-based employees, who complained a few years ago about “insomnia and heart palpitations” while working at the bank.

Working hours at NatWest

WSO data on average NatWest working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 49.8/week (-5.5%)

NatWest had the lowest number of working hours in our survey, which was extremely unsurprising. NatWest was for many years since the financial crisis owned by the British government, which is not a position that lends itself well to building a knife-breaking investment bank. Accordingly, its pay is also low, even compared to European peers. While other London banks such as Barclays and HSBC were raising their bonus cap from 2x to 10x when legislation allowed, NatWest’s remained at 2x.

Working hours at Santander

WSO data on average Santander working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 50.7/week (-4.1%)

Santander is an interesting bank. Based in Spain, and primarily a major retail bank, it has serious ambitions – it invested $250m back in 2023 to “turbocharge” its investment bank, and began hiring senior investment bankers wherever it could, including from Credit Suisse. Despite that, its hours are not particularly “elite”, although that is likely impacted by its substantial retail network.

Working hours at Standard Chartered

WSO data on average Standard Chartered working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 56.9/week (+5.6%)

Standard Chartered bankers were some of the hardest-working in our survey, ahead of all American banks in our survey. This wasn’t a coincidence – they also reported being some of the best paid in our survey. This was despite an extremely poor-performing APAC investment banking fee pool (Standard Chartered is overwhelmingly based in Asia). It’s likely that the bank’s employees have been stuck in a pitch book quagmire, as many bankers worldwide were caught during the pandemic.

Working hours at BNP Paribas

WSO data on average BNP Paribas working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 58.6/week (+0.7%)

BNP Paribas employees working such long hours was a surprise element of our report. BNP had previously said that it aimed to be "the first European corporate and investment bank among global tier one players,” and it was clearly working its people to that aim: unsurprisingly, given their working hours, its bankers also reported some of the lowest mental and physical health scores in our report – the second lowest, in fact, behind its cross-town rival.

Working hours at SocGen

WSO data on average SocGen working hours: n/a

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 55.7/week (+3.1%)

That rival is Societe Generale. SocGen bankers reported the lowest average mental and physical health scores in the industry, although the also-self-reported 55.7-hour work weeks were not starkly high. SocGen, more so than other European banks, has a reputation for being a more relaxed workplace, with an emphasis on job security and work-life balance. Although new CEO and former investment banking head Slawomir Krupa is trying to change that, it doesn’t seem to have had a huge impact yet.

Working hours at boutique banks

WSO data on average boutique working hours: up to 83.8/week

Average working hours across the bank as a whole: 60.3/week (+1.6%)

Boutique banks were aggregated in our data, with banks including Evercore, Lazard, and Moelis being part of our classification. Together, they had higher average working hours than any individual bank; WSO’s data corroborates this, with most of the banks on its working hours list being comprised of boutiques. Boutiques represent in many ways the best and worst of what investment banks can do: on one hand, they pay better than anyone else – but at the same time, they also work hardest, and are more exposed to the market forces that retail banks can hedge against to protect their businesses. Boutiques are investment banks on steroids.

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