Wall Street's $45.9 Billion Half Puts a Record Year and Record Bonuses in View
Wall Street's securities firms earned $45.9 billion in pre-tax profits (profits before taxes are paid) in the first half of 2026, up 51.3% from $30.4 billion in the first half of 2025. The New York State Comptroller published the estimate on Oct. 6 and forecasts a full-year total above $90 billion. Office of the State Comptroller That pace would clear the prior annual record by a wide margin.
Profits at a record pace
The prior annual record was $65.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. A year above $90 billion would beat it by nearly 40%. The Comptroller also reported securities employment at a record high in 2026. Profits grew while headcount grew.
Bonuses and tax revenue
The Comptroller expects 2026 bonuses to reach an all-time high. That matches Bloomberg's Oct. 6 reporting that Wall Street is eyeing record payouts as profit heads past $90 billion.
The industry bonus pool, the total money set aside for bonuses, rose 34% to a record $47.5 billion in 2024, according to the Comptroller's 2025 report. Office of the State Comptroller The 2024 bonus season was expected to generate $600 million more in New York State income tax revenue and $275 million more for New York City than in 2023, according to Reuters.
Trading led the way
On Nov. 5, 2025, Reuters reported, citing a consultancy forecast, that bonuses were expected to be the highest in four years. Within that forecast, equity sales and trading professionals, the desks that buy and sell stocks for clients, were expected to receive the largest increases, at 15% to 25%.
In January 2026, Goldman Sachs reported a profit that beat expectations, driven by record stock trading revenue, and forecast robust M&A activity in 2026, according to Reuters. M&A means mergers and acquisitions, deals in which companies buy or combine with each other.
The broader context here is where that pay growth came from and why it matters beyond Wall Street. The 15% to 25% gap pointed to stock trading activity, not company advisory work, as the main driver of pay heading into this year. Trading can lift pre-tax margins fast because pay is set as a share of revenue while office and system costs change little. Record hiring plus a 51.3% profit jump means revenue per worker rose enough to cover new jobs and still leave room for record bonuses. For savers and taxpayers in New York, that link cuts both ways because finance pay lifts income tax money when trading is busy but drops fast when volumes return to normal.
In my view, the question for the second half is not whether current numbers support record payouts, they do, but how much of the first-half revenue was business pulled forward early rather than a lasting rise in risk taking.
