UBS slashes bonuses after a torrid year
UBS slashed bonuses at its investment bank by nearly two-thirds after the rogue trading scandal which cost it SwFr1.8bn (£1.24bn).
The total size of the bonus pool for investment bankers fell 60 per cent while Carsten Kengeter, the head of the division, waived his payout.
Kengeter, who surprised some when he survived the top-level clear-out following the discovery of the “unauthorised trade”, was usurped as the bank’s top earner, although his salary was not revealed in the annual report, which was published yesterday.
US brokerage chief Robert McCann was the highest earner last year picking up nearly SwFr9.2m overall.
Sergio Ermotti, who was promoted to chief executive in November, was paid nearly SwFr6.4m in total in 2011, including more than SwFr4m in various immediate and deferred cash and share-based bonus payments.
Ermotti, a suave Swiss, was charged with restoring the fortunes of UBS following the departure of Oswald Gruebel, who resigned over the scandal and asked to forgo his bonus.
UBS’s net profit for the year fell nearly 45 per cent to SwFr4.16bn, which the bank restated SwFr74m lower to account for offloading credit default swap contracts to a monoline insurer in the US.