Moelis & Co. had a great year in London, but pay did not match it
Working at a boutique bank like Moelis & Co. has ups and downs. For one, they can pay you wildly when times are bad. On the other hand, however, when times turn good, you likely won’t see a moral-improving boost to your compensation.
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Moelis & Co., the boutique bank founded by Ken Moelis, recently released 2025 results for its main UK subsidiary, Moelis & Company UK LLP. The firm did very well – revenue increased by 20%, reaching £135m ($182m). It also returned to profitability after a £2.5m loss in 2024, booking a £2.6m gain.
Pay, however, did not quite match that same success. Moelis paid its London employees an average of £369k ($498k) in 2025, which was only a very slight – 4.6% – increase on 2024. In 2023, it paid an average of £375k ($505k), despite revenues that year being lower than 2025’s.
That’s partly related to hiring. Moelis has been stacking up on Londoners – it employed 256 people in the city in 2025, which was an increase on the 230 it employed in 2024 and the 211 it employed in 2023. It was the fifth year in a row that Moelis grew in London.
Moelis, as we noted previously, is a generous bank. Even when times were tough, it maintained a high compensation ratio, meaning that it kept employee pay relatively static (and high) regardless of how the firm performed.
Moelis’ first half of 2026 results are a bit more promising than many of their peers, with revenue up by 9% and pre-tax income up by 13%. Its compensation expense, however, was up by just 3% in the same period – although its worth noting that boutique banks don’t necessarily accrue bonuses equally throughout the year.
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