Canada’s largest banks set aside 9% more on average for bonuses in fiscal 2023 than they did a year earlier, with increases at all six companies despite a broadly disappointing year for dealmaking.

That increase is somewhat at odds with the mood on Bay Street, according to Bill Vlaad, managing partner and chief executive officer of Toronto-based recruitment firm Vlaad & Co., who called the equities market of the past six months “abysmal” and said most people in the capital-markets business have been bracing for much lower bonuses.