Most financial sector professionals think City traders are paid too much, a postponed report by the St Paul's Institute has revealed.

The report, Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today, was based on a survey of 515 people taken by market research company ComRes in August. It revealed that 66% of respondents believe City traders are paid too much. FTSE 100 chief executives, stockbrokers, lawyers and bankers were also considered overpaid.

Respondents were questioned about the ethics of their salaries and bonuses, corporate social responsibility and the history of the financial services sector.

Two-thirds of respondents said "salary and bonuses" were the most important motivation for financial services professionals, with "enjoyment of work" coming a distant second. The survey found that 75% agreed there was too great a gap between rich and poor in the UK. Just over half believed deregulation of financial markets resulted in less ethical behaviour.

Only 14% of respondents correctly recalled the motto of the London Stock Exchange – "Dictum Meum Pactum" (my word is my bond).

The thinktank is linked to St Paul's Cathedral in London, where protesters against corporate greed have been demonstrating since last month.

The publication of the report was postponed following the resignation of the canon chancellor of St Paul's, Giles Fraser, over the cathedral's handling of the protest camp. Fraser wrote in the introduction to the report: "The fact that trading is now so heavily mediated by technology and less reliant on direct human contact may go some way to explain how a sense of moral obligation has come to feel less compelling." Quoting the theologian Albert Schweitzer, Fraser wrote that "ethics is a state of solidarity with other human beings".

The Rev Michael Hampel, canon precentor of St Paul's Cathedral, said: "Action is a crucial goal of the protest camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. We hope that the telling findings of this report can provide a solid foundation for future engagement and highlight issues where action might be of mutual concern for all sides of the debate."

The survey, carried out between 30 August and 12 September, was commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the financial Big Bang – the deregulation of the London stock market in 1986.