The popular view that bonus pools at investment banks are still too high is misplaced, according to Deutsche Bank's head of financials research in Europe, who argues instead that the largest institutions still have too many staff in less lucrative business lines.

In a research note published yesterday, Matt Spick said that bonus pools at some banks were 20% to 25% of their peak levels in 2007. He used Credit Suisse as an example of one bank where the predicted 2012 group-wide bonus pool of Sfr2.2bn ($2.3bn) was almost 75% lower than its pre-crisis level.