2011 to Mark Major Dip in Wall Street Bonus Compensation

Analysts and Occupy Wall Street protesters are eagerly awaiting annual bonus statistics for bankers and investment executives. For the year that was fraught with protests and charges of economic inequality, year-end Wall Street bonuses are expected to be rather tame.

According to The Wall Street Journal, total compensation is expected to be the lowest since 2008 - the year the financial service sector collapsed and brought the economy down with it.

Morgan Stanley is expected to scale back bonuses for investment bankers and traders by as much as 30 to 40 percent from the previous year. Most of the partners at Goldman Sachs are likely to see their bonuses halved in comparison to 2010.

Executive consulting firm Options Group also reported that banks could see compensation sink 27 to 30 percent from a year ago.

"Pay worries have been mounting up and down Wall Street for months amid lower trading revenue, languid deal-making, new regulations and anxiety about the global economy," Liz Rappaport and Colin Barr report for the WSJ. "Other pressures include weak financial-company stock prices and sour public sentiment that culminated in the Occupy Wall Street encampment."