Lazard had an unremarkable year, but raised pay a tiny bit anyway
After boutique bank Lazard published its Q2 results this year, we noted that its presentation were remarkable stale in between quarters. Although this seems to have changed (slightly), nothing much else seems to have happened at Lazard in 2025 – its Q4 results were published today, and it seemed to have had a very average year.
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The average year was driven by average revenues. Total revenue increased by just 1%, from $3.14bn to $3.19bn. Those average revenues meant a drop in operating income for the bank, which fell by 15%, from $386m to $328m.
Pay, as a consequence, was pretty flat. The firm paid an average of $614k across 2024, and an average of $630k across 2025, an increase of less than 3%.
That can’t be blamed on substantial headcount increases, either. The firm’s wage bill increased by just 4%, and headcount barely budged, going from 3,263 people at the end of Q4 2024 to 3,309 at the end of Q4 2025, an increase of just 1.4%.
What might tie those two numbers is that a lot of the new hires would have been rather expensive: Financial News reported today that Lazard had hired "more than twice as many" MDs in 2025 as it did in 2024, when it hired 11. It also reported that the bank planned to hire 10-15 new MDs per year until 2030.
By its own account, Lazard is balancing its hiring appetite with its desire to save costs. “We focus on the adjusted compensation ratio to manage costs,” the firm said, “balancing a view of current conditions in the market for talent alongside our objective to drive long-term shareholder value,” related to Peter Orszag's Lazard 2030 strategy. Its managing of costs might have to wait for the future.
And, for what it’s worth, the number of Americans at the firm increased slightly: 53% of the firm's employees were based in the Americas across 2025, which was a return to form after it spent a few quarters hiring Europeans. The percentage of employees based in APAC also declined, from 5% to 4%.
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