The investment banking industry has long been criticised for its gruelling hours and toxic work culture. A 2021 survey from first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs described “inhumane” conditions and persistent abuse during their time working for the US branch of the bank.
On average, analysts said they were working 95 hours a week and were frequently sworn or shouted at. “Being unemployed is less frightening to me than what my body might succumb to if I keep up this lifestyle,” wrote one anonymous contributor.
Despite years of exposés, regulatory pressure and well-publicised scandals, the sector continues to be plagued by horror stories from the trenches. The deaths of three young investment bankers over the past year – Carter McIntosh, Leo Lukenas, and Adnan Deumic – have reignited concerns about the industry’s demanding culture. While the exact cause of death in each case varied, the implication is that the long hours, high-pressure environment and a persistent pay-your-dues mentality might be partly to blame.
Today, even relatively small mistakes can potentially end a person’s career
Georgina Badine can attest to the sector’s callous working conditions, having spent 14 years in banking and private wealth management. During this time she experienced mental and physical stress, pressure to fit into a boys’ club culture and years of sexual harassment and bullying that she is “still living in trauma from” today.
The pressure comes from the long office days and “very tight deadlines”, she says. “There’s also a self-imposed sense of pressure from being around so many high-performers.” Badine once ended up in hospital after working 17 hours a day over several months.
The hours are not the only problem, she adds: “It’s the fire-drill nature of the work, like getting an email from your director at 10pm as you wind down for the day requesting a model update with different revenue targets by 9AM. ‘Oh yeah: and make sure it’s about 96% correct’.”
These experiences prompted Badine to leave the industry and to found Invicta Vita, a professional services company that supports finance workers with conflict-resolution claims and helps them re-enter the workforce after suffering abuse.
A unique problem
Burnout and high stress levels impact the vast majority of workplaces, but the scale of the problem in the finance profession is worse than most. Deloitte’s UK Mental Health Report last year found that the proportion of UK staff suffering from exhaustion and declining performance was 17% in finance and insurance, compared with an average of 12% across all sectors.
This is costing businesses more than just their reputation. The average annual cost of poor mental health per employee in finance and insurance was £5,379, according to the report, more than double that in any of the other sectors covered.
Brushed under the rug
Major finance firms have taken steps to tame working conditions and to ease concerns that they have fostered a culture of overworking. Last year, JP Morgan implemented an 80-hour cap on working weeks for junior bankers, while Bank of America introduced a new time-tracking system that provides more detailed insights into employees’ working hours.
But questions about whether banks are merely paying lip service have been raised following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal last year, which found junior bankers are often instructed by their bosses to ignore rules that limit working hours by not logging them.
There is little evidence of tangible culture change – quite the opposite. Recent Financial Times data shows bullying in the finance sector has risen by two-thirds over the past three years.
What’s more, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has delayed action on bullying and sexual harassment rules. This is despite the Treasury’s 2024 Sexism in the City inquiry, which reported that 45% of workers in financial services had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. The postponement, the regulator says, highlights the challenge of setting a clear, proportionate framework amid evolving legal and political contexts.
“The industry itself hasn’t changed,” Badine stresses, even if expectations have. “Despite all the public discussions, surveys and initiatives, I’m not seeing much progress on the ground. I still work with many people on a daily basis who are enduring these toxic environments”.
Badine attributes an absence of meaningful reform to the sector’s deeply ingrained culture of silence where reporting issues is discouraged. Even when grievances are taken forward, “nothing is ever done about them,” she adds.
Despite all the public discussions, surveys and initiatives, I still work with many people who are enduring these toxic environments
Banking relies heavily on maintaining personal relationships with wealthy clients to generate revenue, Badine explains. Any action that might damage valuable client connections is therefore often “heavily advised against’ and in some cases “expressly forbidden”. Badine recalls multiple moments where her boss told her not to ruffle any feathers, including keeping quiet about an incident of sexual misconduct involving herself and one of the bank’s important clients. “Unfortunately, in the finance world, you’re just a number,” she says.
Long hours and toxic bosses are often framed as the nature of the job or a right of passage, reinforcing it as a systemic norm rather than a problem to be solved, Badine adds. “The prevailing view is that HR wouldn’t do anything about it and speaking up could seriously jeopardise one’s progression.”
Money too can be an effective incentive for young workers to grin and bear harmful environments, with average pay between £100,000 and £136,000 for graduates walking into top investment banks. Indeed, high salaries, bonuses and the promise of rapid career advancement can create strong financial and social pressure. As Badine bluntly puts it: “Money, greed and power tend to drive entitlement and misconduct.”
Is finance being unfairly singled out?
It is important to take a step back and look at how much of this is a projection of not cultural values but cultural stereotypes. It has been commonplace to vilify those working in the financial services industry, argues James Hockin, a partner at Withers, a law firm, specialising in employment law for senior executives in the finance sector. Ever since the financial crisis of 2007, banking has found itself “exclusively and routinely singled out” as a sector with a culture problem, he says, which is both “unfair and harmful”.
Contrary to popular media depictions, Hockin says it is “increasingly hard for senior bankers to step out of line” or “cover up their sins”. A culture marked by complicity or inaction poses serious regulatory risks. As such, individuals in heavily regulated sectors such as banking are held to a much higher standard than those in other sectors, he explains.
Money, greed and power tend to drive entitlement and misconduct
In recent years, regulators have placed “tremendous emphasis” on new requirements, such as the senior managers certification regime and the regulatory reference regime, both of which are aimed at rooting out bad apples by holding senior managers accountable for their actions. “Today, even relatively small mistakes can potentially end a person’s career in the industry.”
Hockin has observed a decrease in the number of “clear-cut, blatant and egregious” cases of misconduct reaching his desk. “These problems still exist, but not to the extent I saw many years ago,” he says. That is not to say the industry’s challenges have gone away. Rather, most of the claims Hockin handles center around under-representation, pay inequality and discrimination.
Furthermore, Hockin is concerned that the growth of the anti-DEI sentiment threatens to undermine the effectiveness of cultural improvement initiatives in the banking sector. “There is a readiness for people in the UK and US banking sectors to be a bit more anti-woke,” he says. “People seem emboldened by the change of administration in the US to say things that they might have not said a year or two ago.”
Banking is facing an identity crisis
Deservedly or not, finance has an image problem. Younger generations have a more sceptical view of the banking sector, regarding it with disinterest or even distrust. This is impacting its ability to attract younger talent. More than 70% of fledgling bankers polled by Financial News in May last year have said they are likely to quit their jobs due to workload and mass burnout.
“Banks can no longer recruit the best and the brightest,” Hockin says, adding that employers are having to work much harder to convince these individuals to join the industry. The industry’s dwindling appeal was not helped by Covid-19 and the subsequent calls from banks for staff to return to the office five days each week.
This has serious repercussions for the future of the UK’s financial system. As Hockin points out: “The lack of young talent entering the profession is creating a generational crisis, which may yet translate into another financial crisis.”
The industry must not become complacent and instead should re-emphasise the importance of bolstering cultural initiatives for the sake of securing future talent. Finance is a worthwhile endeavour, beyond just earning a ton of money: its innovations have made the growth of human civilisation possible, whether helping raise money for businesses or building retirement plans for people. In thinking about how to reform banking culture, organisations would do well to highlight these values.
The investment banking industry has long been criticised for its gruelling hours and toxic work culture. A 2021 survey from first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs described “inhumane” conditions and persistent abuse during their time working for the US branch of the bank.
On average, analysts said they were working 95 hours a week and were frequently sworn or shouted at. “Being unemployed is less frightening to me than what my body might succumb to if I keep up this lifestyle,” wrote one anonymous contributor.
Despite years of exposés, regulatory pressure and well-publicised scandals, the sector continues to be plagued by horror stories from the trenches. The deaths of three young investment bankers over the past year – Carter McIntosh, Leo Lukenas, and Adnan Deumic – have reignited concerns about the industry’s demanding culture. While the exact cause of death in each case varied, the implication is that the long hours, high-pressure environment and a persistent pay-your-dues mentality might be partly to blame.
