£5m bonuses for City traders

A SELECT band of the City's corporate financiers is on course for Christmas bonus rises of up to a third amid expectations of a flat year for swathes of the Square Mile's equities and debt dealers. A London Evening Standard poll of 20 senior investment bankers reveals seasoned advisers on mergers and acquisitions and corporate rescues will pick up bonuses of between £1m and £2m in the first big rise for three years.

Dozens more big payouts are expected for the Square Mile's new breed of so-called proprietary traders, who trade with the bank's own money.

One Canary Wharf-based M&A expert said: 'Citigroup, HSBC and Goldman Sachs have all done well. Overall, corporate finance bonuses should be up between 30% and 35% - it's been a better year than last with a few big deals.'

Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers will be the first to set bonuses this month. Bank sources tip their proprietary trading desks to be the biggest winners, with top players taking up to £5m.

MS and Goldman benefited from their exposure to high risk commodities trading, where profits were made on the back of volatile oil, gas and metals prices. Sources close to French banks BNP Paribas and Société Générale, said this trend would benefit their traders when bonuses are doled out in the spring.

But UBS chief financial officer Clive Standish said last month its third-quarter trading profits were hit harder than rivals' because it spurned commodities trading, so its traders will not fare so well.