NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Wall Street's chief executives will hunker down and pay bonuses this year in the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a taxpayer bailout and mounting political outcry, industry veterans say.

Odds that Wall Street will forgo the payouts are "slim to none," said John Gutfreund, 79, president of New York-based Gutfreund & Co. and the former chief executive officer of Salomon Brothers Inc. "They're going to have to be a little bit sensitive because politicians, whether they like it or not, are part of their lives now."

Year-end payments at the nine banks that received $125 billion from the US Treasury are under investigation by US Representative Henry Waxman and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who are demanding details on companies' compensation plans. Three of the firms, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co., have already set aside $20 billion to pay bonuses this year. The payouts typically account for about two-thirds of compensation at the biggest Wall Street firms. The bonuses are accrued throughout the year in line with revenue.

"Financial institutions that have accepted federal assistance should be required to face consequences from their earlier bad decisions and cancel those bonuses," Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, said in a statement on October 28.

Few of the nine companies receiving money from the US Treasury are performing well this year. Only Well Fargo & Co. has a higher share price, up six percent this year, with the rest showing declines ranging from 18 percent at JPMorgan Chase & Co. to 72 percent at Morgan Stanley. State Street Corp. is the only firm to report increased profits. Merrill Lynch has reported five straight quarterly losses.

"The public pressure might mitigate against bonuses at the levels we've seen recently and that's in sync with the economic issues," said Fred Joseph, 71, co-head of Morgan Joseph & Co. in New York and the former CEO of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. "There will be bonuses this year, but I think they may be reduced by a larger percentage."

Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent letters on October 28 to the nine banks that are receiving money in the US Treasury's capital purchase programme requesting details of their compensation plans.

Cuomo sent letters yesterday to the nine companies requesting detailed accounting of expected payments to top executives in the "upcoming bonus season," including information on the expected bonus pool for this year.

"Wall Street bank executives are set to walk away with billions of bonuses at the end of this year," Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, said in a campaign speech on October 28. "We call that an outrage."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, both Democrats, urged Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to put restrictions on severance pay for executives that participate in the bailout.