A trader's P60 shows what was paid, not how the pay works. How lenders may read a low base and a large discretionary bonus, why standard models fail for traders and structurers, and what a two-year record can support.
In short
For a trader, structurer or salesperson, mortgage affordability rarely fails because the income is weak. Payslips and P60s show what was paid, and the way the pay is built is invisible in them, so lenders may read them through models designed for salaried applicants. Base salary may be counted in full; the bonus, which may be the larger part, may be treated as variable income at anything from 50% to 100% depending on the lender and the record; deferred awards may not be counted until paid. On the same two years of pay, the worked example below shows a £525,000 difference in borrowing between treatments at a 5x multiple. Beyond the documents, lenders may weigh time in role, the sustainability of the earnings, the relationship between base and bonus, and when the bonus lands.
Who this is for
You work in sales and trading, structuring or another front-office markets role at a bank or fund, your base salary is a minority of what you earn, your bonus is discretionary and paid once a year, and part of it may be deferred into stock or cash that vests over several years. You are buying or remortgaging at a loan size where the bonus treatment decides whether the numbers work.
Why do payslips and P60s understate a trader's affordability?
A P60 (the end-of-year pay and tax summary) shows total pay for the tax year; a payslip shows one month. For a salaried applicant that is the whole story. For a markets professional it hides what an underwriter needs to understand: that an annual bonus appears in one month and is absent from the other eleven payslips, that it moves with desk performance and trading conditions year to year, and that a portion may have been deferred into a later year's P60.
Read mechanically, that record can look volatile, and a deferred tranche vesting this year may inflate the figure without being repeatable.
The question is how a lender reads the bonus, and that varies more than the documents do. This article is part of our wider guide to mortgages for trading professionals.
Director and Mortgage Adviser
Specialist mortgage broker for City professionals. David advises traders, structurers and sales professionals on which lenders may read a bonus-led pay structure as it is earned, and how to present a two-year record with deferred awards alongside it.
How do lenders assess bonus income for markets professionals?
Base salary is fixed income and many lenders may count it in full. Everything else is variable income, and a lender may apply three decisions to it: how much history it wants, which figure it uses, and what percentage of that figure it counts.
On history, many lenders on our panel may ask for two years of annual bonus, evidenced by the two payslips showing the payment, and some may accept a single year where the current employer paid the latest bonus within the last twelve months. Monthly or quarterly bonuses may be treated differently again, usually on the latest three or four payslips, and may be counted in full at some lenders. On the figure, some lenders may average the two years; some may take the lower of the latest year's total and the two-year average; a number may use the latest year where the trend is up and the record is established. On the percentage, the range on our panel for an annual discretionary bonus runs from 50% at some mainstream lenders, through 60% of the average at others, to 100% at a number of lenders where the bonus record meets their conditions, which may include a minimum income or a loan-size ceiling above which the percentage steps down.
Deferred compensation sits outside most of this. Awards deferred into stock or cash that vest over three to five years may not be counted until they are paid, and some lenders may not count them even then without a vesting history. How deferred awards can be brought into affordability is a question of its own, covered in How Deferred Compensation Is Treated for UK Mortgages.
Criteria correct as of October 2026. Mortgage lending policies change regularly, for the latest advice, speak to us directly.
study
Macro Trader Secures a £1.7m Interest-Only Mortgage on a £2.3m Home Using a Multi-Year Bonus
A macro trader whose bonus was several times his base needed £1.7m; a lender that may weigh a multi-year bonus record and accept an interest-only structure with a credible repayment plan read the income as it was earned.
Read the full case study →Why do standard income models often fail for traders and structurers?
Standard models were built for pay that arrives evenly and grows gradually, and front-office pay does neither. A standard affordability model may take a fixed salary, add a discounted slice of any variable income averaged over two or more years, and stress-test the result. That can work where salary is 90% of the pay and badly where the base is £150,000 and the bonus is £240,000, because the model may then discount and average the larger part of the income and treat the smaller part as the reliable one.
Three features of trading-floor pay cause the trouble. The base is set low relative to total compensation by design, so a model anchored on base starts from a small number. The bonus moves with trading conditions rather than with the stability of the role, so a flat or down year reads as a weaker applicant when it may be a strong trader in a difficult year for the desk. And discretionary pay is expected without being contractual, so a lender may not treat it as guaranteed.
Applied mechanically, those features may produce bonus caps that bear little relation to actual pay and averaging that lags a promotion or a desk move by a year or two, and different lenders may apply them very differently to the same payslips.
Where that describes your pay, a standard affordability calculation may understate your borrowing, and how the income is assessed can matter more than how much of it there is.
What do lenders weigh beyond the paperwork?
Time in role may carry more weight than any single year's number: a structurer six years on the same desk with a bonus every year is a different applicant from one with a single large payout, even where the latest P60s match. Sustainability may be read from the pattern across years: an underwriter may look for a bonus that has been paid consistently, at a level that tracks the desk and its trading conditions rather than one-off events. The relationship between base and bonus matters because it decides which lender models fit: where the bonus is below the base, many lenders may handle the case on standard terms; where the bonus is a multiple of the base, the lenders that may count a higher percentage or weight the latest year are the ones worth approaching.
Where a desk move or promotion has lifted the current year's expected bonus above the record, some lenders may consider a confirmed figure from the employer, and a number may wait for the payslip.
study
Fixed-Income Trader Secures a £1.5m Mortgage on a £2.1m Purchase Using Bonus-Led Income
A fixed-income trader with a two-year bonus record that dwarfed his base needed £1.5m at around 71% loan-to-value (LTV); the case was placed with a lender that may count a high proportion of a consistent discretionary bonus.
Read the full case study →How much can a two-year bonus record support?
On one structurer's record the borrowing runs from £1,275,000 to £1,800,000 depending on the treatment. The example takes a £150,000 base and two years of discretionary bonus, £180,000 then £240,000, under three treatments that lenders on our panel may apply.
Please note: These figures are for illustrative purposes only. The actual amount you can borrow will depend upon your personal circumstances, credit profile, LTV, the lender's individual criteria and full affordability assessment.
The 100% bar carries conditions at the lenders that offer it, on income level, loan size or bonus history.
What evidence does a markets professional need?
The last two years' bonus payslips, or the last three to four where the bonus is paid monthly or quarterly. The two most recent P60s, so the annual totals reconcile to the payslips. The latest three months' payslips for the base. Where a portion is deferred, the award statements showing the grant, the vesting schedule and anything that has already paid out, kept separate from the cash bonus evidence. Bank statements for three to six months, with the bonus credit visible and matched to the payslip. And where it helps, a letter from the employer confirming the bonus history or the current year's award, which some lenders may weigh.
Keep the cash bonus and the deferred award as separate threads, because they may be assessed differently and a merged figure may attract the lower treatment. And explain a soft year in one paragraph, in writing, before the underwriter has to ask: a sector-wide down year on a desk that has otherwise paid consistently may read very differently from an unexplained dip.
study
Equities Trader Switches an £850k Mortgage on a £1.2m Home to Offset on Bonus-Heavy Income
A trader whose pay arrived in one lump each year wanted the bonus to work against the mortgage between payments rather than sit idle. The remortgage to an offset structure was built around the timing of his cash flow as much as the income figure.
Read the full case study →When does the standard route still work?
Where the base carries the loan on its own, where the bonus is modest or has been paid at a steady level for years, or where the borrowing is conservative relative to total pay. In those cases the two-year average at 50% may still produce a figure that covers the purchase, and a number of lenders on our panel may assess the case on standard terms.
For the quant and systematic side of the floor, where pay may be tied to a formula or a fund's performance, How Lenders Assess Quant and Algo Trading Income covers the differences.
What a specialist broker adds is knowing which lenders on our panel read a soft year as the cycle rather than as you.
Part of a wider guide
How annual, quarterly and deferred bonuses are assessed across the panel, what evidence each needs, and how to time an application around bonus season.
Read the full bonus income guide →FAQs
They start there, and for a markets professional the documents rarely tell the whole story. Lenders may also look at the bonus history across two years, an employer letter confirming the bonus policy or award, deferred-compensation statements and bank statements showing the credits. How that evidence is read varies more between lenders than the documents themselves.
Yes, at many lenders on our panel, as variable income. Some may count 50% of an annual discretionary bonus, some 60% of the average, and a number may count 100% where the record meets their conditions, some anchoring on the lower of the latest year and the two-year average. Many lenders on our panel may ask for two years of evidence, and some may accept one year where the current employer paid the latest bonus.
It can be at a lender that averages mechanically, because a down year may pull the average and the lower-of test down with it. Lenders may read volatility differently where it tracks trading cycles, and some may weight the latest year where the trend is up. A one-paragraph explanation of a soft year, provided before the underwriter asks, can help.
It may not be counted until it has vested and been paid, and some lenders may want a history of tranches paying out before counting them. Awards still vesting may be left out of affordability. Keep deferred awards as a separate evidence thread from the cash bonus so that the cash element is not discounted along with them.
Not directly. What lenders weigh is time in role, the consistency of the bonus record and the relationship between base and bonus, which often come with seniority and are not the title itself. An associate with four years of consistent bonus on one desk can present a cleaner case than a director who moved firms last year.
No. Many markets cases may complete with mainstream lenders on our panel that count a high proportion of a consistent bonus. Private banks may suit a case where the loan is large, the income mix includes deferred awards or several currencies, or an interest-only structure at a higher loan-to-value (LTV) is wanted, because they may assess the whole position without a fixed percentage.
Yes. A second full year on a new desk, a deferred tranche that has now paid, or a bonus that has settled at a higher level all change what a lender may count. Borrowing can often be increased at remortgage once the record supports it, which is one reason to avoid stretching for the maximum at the first purchase.
Usually after the bonus payslip, where the latest year is the stronger one, because a lender using the latest year or the two-year average then has the better figure on record. Where the latest year is weaker, applying before it lands may keep the prior two years as the evidence at some lenders. Timing around the payslip and the P60 is part of the planning.