JPMorgan Chase is offering Bear Stearns’ best brokers annual bonuses of more than $500,000 in an effort to prevent an exodus of talent as a result of its planned takeover of the stricken investment bank.

People close to the situation said JPMorgan, which raised its all-stock bid to buy Bear from $2 to $10 per share on Monday, told the firm’s 400-plus private client brokers that those bringing in more than $500,000 in revenues would receive a bonus of up to 100 per cent of the total revenue they generated.