Top brokerage firms' average salary review: collective increase, CITIC Securities leads with an annual salary of 810k yuan

Ask AI · Under the staff reduction and efficiency enhancement strategy, how can securities firms improve per capita output?

As of now, many securities firms have disclosed their 2025 annual reports. As an important indicator of the prosperity of the capital market, securities firms’ compensation data has once again become a focus of market attention.

Combined with Wind and company announcement data, after reviewing major institutions such as CITIC Securities, China International Capital Corporation, GF Securities, Huatai Securities, Shenwan Hongyuan, CITIC Construction Investment, China Merchants Securities, Orient Securities, and China Galaxy, it is found that, against the backdrop of market recovery and ongoing optimization of business structure, leading securities firms’ per capita compensation shows a comprehensive year-on-year growth trend, with most institutions achieving double-digit increases, and the overall industry compensation level returning to an upward trajectory.

**Leading securities firms’ per capita compensation rises across the board
**

CITIC Securities ranks first with 812.8k yuan

In 2025, the overall activity level of the A-share market increased, reforms in the capital market continued to deepen, and major business lines of securities firms entered a recovery window, directly reflected in employee compensation. From the statistical results, all leading listed securities firms’ per capita compensation achieved positive year-on-year growth, and industry compensation sentiment significantly rebounded.

Looking at total compensation, the overall expenditure of leading securities firms continued to expand. CITIC Securities topped the industry with a total compensation of over 812.8k yuan, supported by its large business volume and employee scale; China International Capital Corporation’s total compensation exceeded 21.78B yuan, GF Securities’ exceeded 11.54B yuan, both remaining in the hundred-billion-yuan range. Shenwan Hongyuan, Huatai Securities, and China Merchants Securities also had high total compensation levels, reflecting a sustained increase in industry-wide manpower investment.

In terms of absolute per capita salary, CITIC Securities still ranks first, with an average of 812.8k yuan, the only leading firm to surpass 800k yuan so far, maintaining its industry-leading position.

China International Capital Corporation follows closely with 799.3k yuan, just a step away from 800k yuan, maintaining strong competitiveness among top-tier firms. GF Securities’ per capita salary is also impressive, reaching 772.5k yuan, ranking third. Overall, the “CITIC – CICC – GF” formation constitutes the top salary group, with per capita compensation around 800k yuan, widening the gap with other leading institutions.

In terms of growth rate, there is a clear differentiation among leading securities firms, with many achieving double-digit growth. China International Capital Corporation leads with a 24.40% year-on-year increase, making it the fastest-growing top-tier firm; GF Securities also shows strong growth, up 18.67%; China Merchants Securities follows closely with an 18.21% increase. Additionally, CITIC Construction Investment and China Galaxy saw per capita salary growth of 16.98% and 13.65%, respectively, both achieving rapid recovery.

Notably, many leading firms’ per capita salaries have increased by double digits. However, the growth rate of per capita compensation for many firms is within the range of their net profit attributable to shareholders.

Furthermore, some leading securities firms’ per capita salaries grew steadily. For example, CITIC Securities achieved a net profit of 10.66B yuan attributable to shareholders in 2025, a 38.58% increase, but its per capita salary growth was only 4.23%. Larger institutions like CITIC Securities show relatively moderate growth, maintaining steady expansion overall, reflecting that large firms pay more attention to long-term stability and cost control in compensation management.

**Continuous optimization of personnel structure
**

“Quality improvement and efficiency increase” has become a common choice

In response to rising compensation levels, leading securities firms generally maintained a stable staff size in 2025, without blindly expanding personnel, instead achieving per capita efficiency improvements through streamlining and adjustments.

Looking at changes in employee numbers, differences among leading firms are evident. CITIC Securities’ total staff remained stable, with only a slight increase of 42 people compared to the previous year, demonstrating stable personnel management. Orient Securities saw a relatively significant increase, with 843 more employees than at the end of 2024.

Apart from the above firms, the other eight leading securities firms also showed signs of personnel structure adjustments and optimization. Huatai Securities reduced its staff by 1,453; China Galaxy, CITIC Construction Investment, GF Securities, CICC, and Orient Securities each adjusted their staff by between 300 and 500 people.

With total compensation increasing and employee numbers slightly shrinking, per capita compensation naturally rose significantly, indirectly confirming that leading firms are promoting strategies of “staff reduction and efficiency enhancement, and better job matching.”

Overall, the personnel management approach of leading securities firms in 2025 is becoming clearer: first, controlling the total number to avoid costs from unplanned expansion; second, optimizing the structure by focusing on core businesses such as investment banking, research, fintech, and wealth management; third, increasing per capita output through business upgrades and digital transformation, enabling fewer people to create higher value.

This pattern of “stable personnel, rising salaries” indicates that the securities industry is shifting from past reliance on extensive headcount expansion to a high-quality development model driven by professional capabilities and technological empowerment.

**Market prosperity rebounds
**

Performance recovery solidifies salary foundation

The overall upward trend in securities firms’ compensation in 2025 is fundamentally due to significant recovery in industry performance. Driven by factors such as increased market trading volume, normalized investment banking activities, expanded asset management scale, and growing institutional demand, securities companies’ revenue and profits generally improved, providing a solid basis for salary payments.

Looking at major stock indices, despite some divergence in performance in 2025, the overall trend was positive: the Shanghai Composite Index rose 18%, the Shenzhen Component Index increased 30%, and the ChiNext Index surged 50%. With active market sentiment, the total trading volume of A-shares exceeded 400 trillion yuan for the year, with an average daily turnover of 1.73 trillion yuan, hitting record highs and increasing 63% compared to 2024.

Additionally, the scale of institutional investors continued to expand, with new public fund shares issued reaching 1.17 trillion, and net asset value further rising, with ETF assets surpassing 6 trillion yuan by year-end. Meanwhile, individual investors remained active, with 27.436 million new A-share accounts opened on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2025, a 9.8% increase; the margin financing and securities lending balance in the A-share market reached 2.54 trillion yuan, up 0.68 trillion yuan from the end of 2024.

In the IPO market, A-share IPO activity rebounded, with financing scale up 96% year-on-year to 131.8 billion yuan. Meanwhile, amid asset revaluation in China and renewed enthusiasm for domestic companies listing in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong stock market performed strongly, with IPO financing increasing 226% to $36.8 billion, and average daily turnover up 90% to 249.8 billion HKD.

Against this backdrop, brokerage income and investment income saw significant year-on-year growth, and investment banking also experienced marginal improvement, jointly driving a notable increase in overall industry profits, which underpins the growth of industry-wide per capita salaries.

At the same time, digital transformation is profoundly impacting securities firms’ compensation structures. In recent years, leading firms have increased investments in information technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and other fields, leading to a surge in demand for talent in technology development, algorithm research, and system architecture. Salaries for such roles are high and increasing rapidly, becoming an important driver of rising per capita compensation. The widening gap between traditional and emerging business compensation also reflects the industry’s shift toward technology-driven and professional-driven development.

Notes:

1. In this report, the calculation method for total compensation is: (cash paid to employees and for employees + year-end accrued employee compensation - beginning-of-year accrued employee compensation) / [(beginning employee count + ending employee count) / 2].

2. Guotai Haitong Securities completed a non-controlling enterprise merger on March 14, 2025. Its 2025 financial data are based on the original Guotai Junan’s financials, so data for employee compensation payable in 2024 are unavailable and are not included here.

Written by: Nandu · Wan Cai She Reporter Wu Hongsen