THOUSANDS of City workers are likely to receive cash bonuses between ten and 20 per cent higher than this time last year.

The biggest bonus winners of 2003 will be interest traders and derivatives specialists, with bankers in the traditionally glamorous areas of mergers and acquisitions only seeing a modest increase, or in some cases, no increase at all, research by Close Wealth Management (CWM) found.

Derivatives traders with as little as three years' experience could receive bonuses of £300,000 or more, and top interest traders will be among the main recipients of those elusive six and seven figure bonuses, CWM said.

Martin Smith, chief executive of CWM, said: "Last year, up to one in five City workers did not receive a bonus, and of those that did, they were as much as 70 per cent lower than in 2001.

"However, 2003 has been a much better year and there are a number of factors fuelling bigger bonus payments.

"These include healthier share prices, which have increased by about 30 per cent since hitting a seven-year low in March, and increases in mergers and takeovers."