2025 Compensation & Talent Survey: Powering the C-Suite

Thirty percent of bank leaders do not have a long-term succession plan for C-suite executives other than the CEO, or feel their plan is ineffective, according to Bank Director’s 2025 Compensation & Talent Survey, sponsored by Chartwell Partners.

Banks will need to develop top officers to ensure they’re ready for the C-suite or hire outside talent. Attracting and retaining key staff has been a perennial challenge for the industry, especially for smaller and rural banks that have been fishing from a smaller pool. CEOs, human resources officers, senior executives and board members responding to the survey say their bank would likely offer coaching or mentorship programs (73%) to strengthen their bench of executives over the next three years, or provide external career development or tuition reimbursement (53%). Fifty-two percent would likely hire external talent in their markets.

But what about hiring senior talent from outside of the industry altogether? Just 22% of respondents say their bank has done this over the past three years, and of those, a majority say that all or most of those hires have been successful. In anonymous comments, survey participants say those hires have included human resources directors, heads of risk and compliance, business development officers and even two CEOs. Forty-four percent say they have not hired key senior talent from outside the industry in the past three years but would consider it for the right fit.

“That can make some sense, particularly because over the last three years, you’ve had a lot of aging out that’s going on in the industry, and that’s accelerating,” says Scott Petty, managing partner, financial services practice at Chartwell. Observing that banks between $5 billion and $10 billion in assets are far likelier to have hired from outside the industry, he says, “The executive skill set changes at $5 billion to $10 billion, so you may see more coming in from the outside to the C-suite there.”

That acceleration affects CEO transition plans, too. A third of respondents expect their bank’s CEO to retire or depart within the next five years. Thirty-six percent say their board has an idea of its timeline but has not yet identified potential CEO candidates; 19% have not discussed CEO succession at all.

Measuring CEO Performance
Bank executives and directors say their CEO’s performance is measured by return on assets (53%), income growth (47%), asset quality (42%) and efficiency (40%). Just over half (54%) report gauging CEO performance based on good standing with regulators, compared with 48% a year ago.

Hiring Plans Level Off
Just over half indicate their bank plans to add commercial/business lending staff this year, down from 57% a year earlier. A third plan to increase technology or IT staff, compared with 37% last year.

DEI Programs Decline
The percentage of respondents who say their bank lacks a formal diversity, equity and inclusion program that does not measure related metrics climbed to 57% from 42% a year earlier. More than half (53%) of those with a standing DEI program say their bank intends to continue their existing DEI practices.

Handling Mishires
Twenty-six percent say their bank has hired or promoted a candidate at the C-level who turned out to be a poor fit. In comments, respondents describe a range of ways they handled those mishires, from outright firing to encouraging early retirements. Some focused on improving the hiring process.

Head Counts Plateau
One third of respondents report their bank’s total number of employees remained flat in 2024, and another 38% say their bank somewhat increased total employees. Bank executives and leaders largely report that hiring in general has not been more difficult in 2024-25 than it was in previous years, but banks under $500 million of assets report considerably more difficulty in this area.

Costs Continue to Rise
Eighty-five percent say that compensation expenses increased in 2024, a slight decline from last year. Those respondents report a median 5% increase in compensation expenses year-over-year.

To view the high-level findings, click here.

Bank Services members can click below to access the complete results, broken out by asset category and other relevant attributes. To find out how your bank can gain access to this exclusive report, contact [email protected].