Switzerland's biggest bank, the UBS Group, has been on the receiving end of some criticism and has drawn ire on Twitter for its latest decision.
The?Swiss banking giant has cut employee bonuses for last year by 10% after witnessing a slump in revenue from mergers and capital raisings.
However, on the other hand, its CEO, Ralph Hamers, has received 12.2 million Swiss francs ($13 million) for his second full year in the job, which signals a jump of over $1 million from the pay of 11 million francs a year earlier.
The Zurich-based lender set aside $3.3 billion for employee bonuses last year, down from about $3.7 billion, according to its annual report on Monday.
The pay awards cap an uneven year for Switzerland¡¯s largest bank, with a roughly 50% slump in the business of advising on mergers and capital raisings offsetting gains in trading and inflows in wealth management. Hamers previously warned that bonuses could be cut if deal-making didn¡¯t come back. He said in January that UBS has a "healthy culture of pay for performance," though he didn¡¯t see the need for a bidding war, as per the Bloomberg report.
That¡¯s in part because several Wall Street rivals that only a year earlier were still competing for talent have begun to cut jobs in preparation for an economic slowdown.
?The decision of the biggest bank in Switzerland to cut employees' bonuses by 10% but give more than $1 million in raises to its CEO has drawn ire on Twitter.??
UBS's rival, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, Credit Suisse, is battling a complicated restructuring that includes thousands of job cuts and a spin-out of the investment bank. The firm slashed the bonus pool for 2022 by about half and said the management board took no action after its worst year since the financial crisis, as per the report.
Also Read:?Credit Suisse?& Citi Group Halt Loans To Adani Group Companies
However, some rivals are still handing out large increases.
Italy¡¯s UniCredit SpA is set to boost the pool for last year by 20%, likely one of the most generous awards among European banks, Bloomberg reported. CEO Andrea Orcel, a former UBS investment banker, was given a 30% compensation increase after he received €7.5 million for 2022.
UBS stood out among global peers in its confidence that large-scale job cuts seen across Wall Street can be avoided. Cost pressures playing out in the industry where particularly acute for investment bank units.
UBS CEO Hamers faced a major setback in September when the bank announced that it was pulling out of a deal to buy US robo-advisor Wealthfront, a purchase that was meant to widen its reach to the lower rungs of the wealthy there.?
Instead, UBS retrenched, saying it would focus on its traditional high net worth customer base.
New Chairman Colm Kelleher earned 4.8 million francs after taking over at last year¡¯s annual general meeting. Axel Weber, who stepped down from that role in April after a decade, earned 5.2 million francs, according to the report.
For the latest and interesting financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth.?Click here.