The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Canada's banks are spending 1.9 per cent more on bonuses for fiscal 2022 than they did a year earlier, despite a dramatic slowdown in investment-banking activity, as they try to retain top employees. The Post's Kevin Orland writes that the country's six largest lenders set aside $19.4-billion for performance-based compensation in the fiscal year that ended Oct. 31. That marks a sharp slowdown from the 18-per-cent increase in bonuses in fiscal 2021 and is far short of the five-year average of 8.2 per cent. Canada's banks faced a difficult year in their capital-markets businesses, with initial public offerings and acquisition volumes plummeting from a record pace in 2021. There has not been a single Canadian IPO over $1-billion this year. Still, top bankers remain hard to replace, so firms are reluctant to grow too stingy with pay. The record pace of deals and bonuses in 2021 "was a bit of an anomalous event," said banking headhunter Adam Dean. "To replicate that this year, even in the best of scenarios -- let alone one where we're dealing with inflationary pressures and rising interest rates and an uncertain economic environment -- would be very difficult."