To whatever extent they have trouble attracting researchers it's because you will never be able to publish anything or talk about your work in a finance firm. Academia is status/reputation/ego driven (not that there's anything wrong with this).
My friends in quant finance made more than 200k guaranteed their first years (not including performance bonus), and they did not have graduate degrees. It went up to more than half a million in a few years (including bonus).
The ramp up and ceiling is much higher in finance. First year salary for someone with a bachelors in a finance company may be comparable to someone with a masters/PhD in a tech company, sure.