The bonus culture on Wall Street never really went away. After years of keeping a lower profile under regulatory pressure, bank chiefs are back to collecting massive paychecks, and the numbers revealed in early 2026 are hard to ignore. Proxy filings published in January and February 2026 show the CEOs of the six biggest U.S. banks collectively pulled in $258 million in total compensation for the 2025 fiscal year, a jump of more than 21% from the prior year. That is the second-highest combined increase on r ...