Financial services staff expect big bonuses for 2007 despite market difficulties

City workers are still expecting big bonuses this year, despite the impact of the credit crunch and a string of job losses at some of the world's biggest banks.

A survey of 500 financial services professionals by City recruitment firm Joslin Rowe found three-quarters expected bonuses to increase on last year's by about 12%.

The survey said that would see the UK's bonus pot rise to a huge £20.7bn.

Just 6% of financial services staff expected a decrease, with the remainder believing their bonus will stay the same.

Tara Ricks, managing director of Joslin Rowe Associates, said: "Companies are still absorbing the effect of financial market turmoil, and we should expect lower payouts this year.

"Clearly employees still have overblown bonus expectations. We would anticipate a lot of expectation management in the coming weeks from firms in the sector."