Bank pay has moved faster over the past year than it has in a long time. The most recent salary survey found that CEO midpoint salaries rose 21.48% across banks and credit unions, a striking jump given that the firm’s director of compensation said it had been difficult to move that midpoint even 2% a year over the previous five years. 

Raises like that get noticed. They are also easy to match. A competitor can beat a base salary in a single phone call, while money that hasn’t vested yet is much harder to walk away from. 

Banks already understand this at the top of the house. Over half of CEOs receive a nonqualified deferred compensation or supplemental retirement benefit in fiscal 2025, and 44% of CFOs did. Close to half of CEOs and CFOs also received equity grants, and the median equity or long-term deferred cash award for CEOs was roughly $384,000. Those plans tie executives to the bank’s long-term results and make leaving expensive, which is exactly the point. 

The People Who Actually Get Poached 

The bankers competitors pursue hardest usually sit a level or two below the C-suite. Senior commercial relationship managers, treasury management team leads and private client advisors with deep books are the people whose departure takes revenue with them. Many are paid almost entirely through salary and an annual incentive, so a recruiter only needs to beat one year of pay to make a move look attractive. 

Executives clearly value deferred plans when they get access to them. The Plan Sponsor Council of America’s 2025 NQDC survey found that 70% of eligible executives participate, a record and up from 61.2% the year before. On average, though, only 6.5% of employees are eligible. Many organizations offer the tool to a narrow group and stop there. 

For banks, extending some form of deferred or long-term award to top producers changes the retention conversation. A deferred bonus that vests over three to five years givesa relationship manager a concrete reason to stay through the next cycle. In private wealth, long-term awards linked to client retention after an advisor transition can keep a team focused on holding households through the moments when they are most likely to leave. 

Design matters as much as dollar amount. A plan that is confusing, or that seems to reset every year, rarely changes anyone’s behavior. Producers should be able to see what they have accrued and exactly what they would forfeit by leaving. 

Why the Timing Matters So Much  

Bank Director’s survey also found that 29% of bank leaders said attracting or retaining talent was harder in 2025 and 2026 than in earlier years. Add an active M&A market that puts producers at acquired banks in play, and competitors have plenty of openings to make attractive offers. Unvested value is one of the few things that makes a banker pause before taking that call. 

None of this substitutes for a good manager. Bankers leave poor ones regardless of what has been deferred. When the rest of the experience is solid, though, a well-built long-term plan gives your best people one more reason to stay put. 

The Anderson Search Group sees compensation packages from both sides every day, including the ones that persuade top bankers to stay and the ones that make them easy to recruit. If you are rethinking how you retain producers below the executive level, we would welcome the conversation.