During the annual report season, the &#34;report cards&#34; of securities firms are being released one after another. As of April 9, 25 listed securities firms have disclosed their 2025 performance, with all parent net profits showing positive growth. Behind the performance recovery, the compensation landscape presents a complex differentiation—employees generally received salary increases, while most executives faced salary reductions. However, some firms like GF Securities achieved double growth, while Guohai Securities saw declines in both.
In terms of specific data, CITIC Securities' average employee compensation reached 812,800 yuan in 2025, while Zhongyuan Securities and others were below 500,000 yuan; at the executive level, GF Securities' total annual compensation was nearly 45.12 million yuan, while several firms like Cinda Securities were below 10 million yuan, and Shenwan Hongyuan was only 6.56 million yuan. Within the same institution, there are also differences in the compensation levels of the chairman and the general manager.
Interviewees pointed out that employee compensation is directly linked to business revenue, while executive compensation is affected by deferred payment mechanisms and historical performance, leading to a &#34;scissors gap&#34; between the two. However, due to differences in marketization levels and institutional flexibility, firms like GF Securities and Western Securities achieved synchronized salary increases for executives and employees. The disparity in compensation between the chairman and the general manager essentially reflects the competition between &#34;governance rights&#34; and &#34;operational rights.&#34; It is suggested that state-owned institutions should clarify the boundaries of &#34;salary caps&#34; and &#34;performance-related compensation&#34; to avoid &#34;visible reductions with hidden supplements&#34;; private and mixed-ownership institutions need to retain sufficient flexibility to attract top talent.
Compensation Shows &#34;Scissors Gap&#34;
In the bull market of 2025, securities firms' brokerage, proprietary trading, and other businesses flourished, leading to overall industry performance growth and corresponding increases in employee compensation. Choice data shows that all 25 comparable securities firms reported positive growth in average employee compensation, with CITIC Securities leading at 812,800 yuan and Huazhong Securities seeing an increase of as much as 31%; however, executive compensation showed differentiation, with 19 firms experiencing a year-on-year decline in total executive compensation, among which Shenwan Hongyuan saw a decrease of 37%.
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&#34;The sharp contrast between the widespread increase in employee compensation and the general decrease in executive compensation presents a 'scissors gap' pattern,&#34; said Chen Xingwen, Chief Strategy Officer of Heisaki Capital, pointing out that the differentiation is driven by two underlying logics:
First, the regulatory guidance for &#34;stable compensation&#34; continues to exert pressure. The Ministry of Finance's 2022 &#34;salary cap order&#34; requires that the basic salary of financial enterprise executives not exceed 35% of the total, and performance-based compensation exceeding 40% must be deferred for three years. The new round of financial industry compensation reform in 2025 emphasizes &#34;limiting excessively high compensation&#34; and &#34;eliminating salary inversion,&#34; with policy pressures directly compressing executives' immediate income.
Second, there is a lagging effect of performance recovery. In 2025, the performance of securities firms generally improved, with employee compensation directly linked to business revenue, while executive compensation is more affected by deferred mechanisms and historical performance. Some of the compensation distributed in 2025 actually corresponds to deferred bonuses from 2022 to 2024, during which the industry was experiencing a performance downturn
Gong Tao, chairman of Shenzhen Zhongjin Huachuang Fund, added that after the &#34;salary limit order&#34; for state-owned financial enterprises was issued in August 2022, the salaries of executives and employees in the securities industry temporarily decreased. However, as the sluggish market led to the loss of basic employees and affected business operations, some brokerages began to implement differentiated salary reductions—significantly lowering executive salaries while improving the treatment of basic employees. In 2025, as the market improved, the salaries of employees in listed brokerages rose significantly. Although the basic salaries of some brokerage executives were reduced, the strength of equity incentives and year-end performance bonuses increased, better reflecting the principle of distribution according to labor.
It is noteworthy that the salaries of employees and executives at GF Securities, Hualin Securities, Cinda Securities, and Western Securities all increased year-on-year. Chen Xingwen explained that this depends on the degree of marketization and institutional flexibility. The synchronous increase in salaries for executives and employees at GF Securities and Western Securities is primarily due to their mixed ownership or market-oriented genes. Taking GF Securities as an example, as a well-established market-oriented brokerage, its salary mechanism is flexible, and it has achieved a 42% increase in total executive salaries by reducing the size of the executive team (the number of executives receiving salaries was reduced to 21 in 2025, with a clear trend of &#34;one person holding multiple positions&#34;).
The merged Guotai Haitong and Guolian Minsheng brokerages saw a significant increase in performance, with employee and executive salaries also rising in tandem. Among them, the total executive salary at Guolian Minsheng increased to over 24 million yuan in 2025, mainly due to the expansion of the executive team combined with a surge in performance. Guolian Minsheng stated to the International Financial News that after the integration of Guolian Securities and Minsheng Securities in 2025, eight executives from Minsheng Securities were transferred to Guolian Minsheng Securities, effectively supplementing the executive team. The 2025 annual report disclosed that executive salaries increased by 69% compared to 2024, mainly because the number of executives receiving salaries (including those who left) increased from 17 to 23. The average salary of the executive team (excluding directors and supervisors) remained basically flat year-on-year in 2025.
Governance Rights VS Operational Rights
The total annual executive salaries in 2025 show significant disparities among brokerage institutions, and the performance and salaries of large, medium, and small brokerages are not completely positively correlated. The total executive salary at GF Securities reached 45.12 million yuan, far ahead of CITIC Securities and China International Capital Corporation, which exceeded 20 million yuan; while Shenwan Hongyuan only had 6.56 million yuan.
At the same time, the total executive salaries of smaller brokerages like Hualin Securities and Dongxing Securities are comparable to those of larger and medium-sized brokerages like China Galaxy and Guotai Haitong, but brokerages like Southwest Securities are still below 10 million yuan.
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&#34;Brokerages with stronger state-owned attributes, such as Shenwan Hongyuan and China Galaxy, are subject to stronger implicit constraints from the central enterprise 'salary limit of 3 million yuan,' making the reduction of executive salaries more rigid,&#34; Chen Xingwen pointed out. This differentiation essentially reflects the dual-track characteristics of China's financial system: market-oriented institutions follow the logic of &#34;high salaries to attract talent,&#34; while state-owned institutions bear more policy functions and social responsibilities
This gap stems from fundamental differences in governance logic. Chen Xingwen explains that from an international perspective, the CEO compensation of investment banks in Europe and the United States is typically 50 to 100 times the average employee salary, while this ratio for Chinese securities firms has significantly narrowed. The &#34;million-dollar annual salary executive club&#34; has sharply decreased from nearly 10 in 2023 to only 5 in 2025, which is both a result of regulatory corrections to the &#34;financial elite theory&#34; and the industry's painful transition from &#34;scale expansion&#34; to &#34;high-quality development.&#34; On a micro level, the salary gap reflects the differentiation of resource endowments and strategic positioning. Leading securities firms, relying on their full-license advantages and capital strength, can support higher talent premiums; smaller and medium-sized firms seek differentiation in niche areas, such as Hualin Securities achieving an average executive salary of 1.16 million yuan due to its internet gene, which embodies the vitality of China's multi-tiered securities ecosystem.
At the position level, the salaries of chairpersons and general managers vary. The chairman of CITIC Securities earns over 2.3 million yuan, while some chairpersons of securities firms earn below one million yuan; the general manager of GF Securities earns nearly 3.57 million yuan, but many general managers of smaller securities firms earn less than one million yuan.
Chen Xingwen analyzes that the difference in salaries between chairpersons and general managers essentially reflects the game between &#34;governance rights&#34; and &#34;operational rights.&#34; Data shows that the average salary of securities firm chairpersons is 1.259 million yuan, with a median of 909,500 yuan; the average salary of general managers is 1.605 million yuan, with a median of 1.471 million yuan, indicating that general managers generally earn more than chairpersons. This aligns with modern corporate governance logic: the chairman, as a representative of shareholders, focuses on strategic decision-making and risk supervision, leading to more stable compensation; the general manager, as the core of the execution layer, is directly responsible for performance, and incentives need to be strongly tied to business revenue generation.
However, the fact that the chairpersons of CITIC Securities, China Merchants Securities, and others earn more than their general managers reflects a &#34;strong chairman&#34; governance structure. Chen Xingwen further points out that these institutions are mostly state-owned enterprises, where chairpersons are often appointed by higher-level units, possessing both political status and administrative rank, and their compensation design needs to balance market competitiveness and internal system equilibrium. Additionally, Xu Chun, the vice president of Guolian Minsheng, earns 2.4225 million yuan, which is higher than the president Ge Xiaobo's 2.0347 million yuan, representing a special case where Xu Chun, a star investment banker appointed as vice president at the age of 36, reflects more of a market-based pricing for core business lines rather than an administrative rank order.
Gong Tao adds that the fundamental determining factor for the salary differences between chairpersons and general managers is the equity structure. In securities firms where major shareholders hold over 51%, chairpersons are often appointed by major shareholders, leading to higher salaries; in firms with relatively balanced equity structures, controlling shareholders need to balance various relationships, adhering more to the principle of &#34;more work, more pay,&#34; resulting in greater responsibilities for general managers and correspondingly higher salaries.
Balancing Fairness and Efficiency
The high salaries of securities firms have long attracted public attention, primarily focusing on how to balance fairness and efficiency in the compensation arrangements between executives and employees.
Gong Tao believes that increasing the salaries of basic employees and optimizing the compensation structure for executives are fundamental means to enhance the competitiveness of securities firms. Increasing basic employee salaries should be based on performance and differentiated KPI distribution to stimulate enthusiasm; executive compensation should primarily rely on equity incentives, reflecting the principles of &#34;more work, more pay, performance commitments, rewards and penalties.&#34;
Chen Xingwen proposed to build a &#34;three-dimensional coordinate system&#34;:
Vertically, improve the deferred payment and clawback mechanism. For example, CITIC Securities has implemented a performance compensation deferral of 40% for three years. In the future, the deferral ratio should be dynamically linked to the risk exposure cycle to avoid the moral hazard of &#34;blowing up this year while bonuses have already been paid.&#34;
Horizontally, establish a differentiated structure of &#34;base salary + performance bonus + long-term incentives,&#34; where the floating proportion for front-line business personnel can be increased to 60%-70%, while the middle and back office should focus on stability. The dual reduction in salaries for employees and executives at Guohai Securities is a prudent adjustment based on declining performance.
In-depth, introduce ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and compliance risk control indicators. The new &#34;Nine National Regulations&#34; clearly require that compensation be &#34;aligned with compliance risk control and social culture.&#34; By 2026, compliance deductions, customer complaints, reputation risks, etc., should be included in performance assessments to achieve a virtuous cycle of &#34;compliance creating value.&#34;
&#34;Five employees of CITIC Securities' overseas subsidiaries have annual salaries exceeding 9 million yuan, with the highest exceeding 15 million yuan. This 'domestic compliance, overseas marketization' dual-track design may become a pragmatic choice during the transition period.&#34; Chen Xingwen also mentioned that, based on international experience, Wall Street investment banks implemented the &#34;clawback&#34; mechanism after the 2008 financial crisis, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley establishing deferred compensation pools to address potential risks. Chinese brokerages can draw on this logic but need to combine it with local realities—state-owned institutions should strengthen the boundaries of &#34;salary caps&#34; and &#34;job-related compensation&#34; to avoid &#34;overt reductions with covert supplements&#34;; private and mixed-ownership institutions should retain enough flexibility to attract top talent. The 2026 reform of brokerage compensation is shifting from &#34;short-term reductions&#34; to &#34;long-term restructuring.&#34; As the industry deepens its transformation towards wealth management and investment banking capitalization, the compensation system will become more refined, and &#34;golden handcuff&#34; style long-term incentives are indispensable for core talent.
Reporter Zhu Denghua
Text Editor Chen Si

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The annual report season for securities firms shows that the performance of 25 listed securities firms is generally growing in 2025, but there is a significant disparity in compensation: employee salaries are generally rising, while executive compensation mostly declines. The average employee salary at CITIC Securities reaches 812,800 yuan, while some securities firms are below 500,000 yuan. In terms of executive compensation, GF SEC is close to 45.12 million yuan, while Cinda Securities and others are below 10 million yuan. Analysis indicates that employee compensation is linked to business revenue, while executive compensation is influenced by historical performance and policy restrictions, creating a "scissors gap." It is recommended that state-owned institutions clarify salary boundaries, while private institutions need to retain flexibility to attract talent

The differentiation in brokerage compensation hides secrets