WestLB delays annual bonus announcement

WestLB has delayed announcing details of its staff bonuses by a month. Last year the German bank deferred part payment of some employees' bonuses by up to six months.

Sources close to the bank said the bonuses were delayed to fall into line with publication of the full-year results on Thursday and they would be paid as part of next month's compensation.

The bank previously announced consolidated full year results in May, but has brought that forward.

However, the explanation has been met with scepticism by staff. Last year the bank deferred part payment of some bonuses from April to September.

In 2004 WestLB's banking unit employed 5,132 people and had a salary bill of €698m ($759m), paying an average of €136,000. The managing board was paid a combined €14.9m. WestLB compensation is paid in cash without a stock element.

WestLB group had 6,197 staff as of September 30, 2005, down more than 13% on 7,154 at the end of 2004.

The capital markets division has suffered from the loss of its three most senior bond syndicate bankers over the last 12 months. In October, Glen Davies, co-head of syndicate, left to join WestLB's securitisation division, Brightwater Capital Management.

That followed the loss of fellow co-head of syndicate Jean-Pierre Albin to Royal Bank of Canada a few days earlier. Mark Dodd, formerly head of syndicate, left in April to join Royal Bank of Scotland.

WestLB restructured the capital markets division in August. Manfred Puffer left and was replaced by Robert Stein, who took over responsibility for international clients and investment banking.

The bank made losses of €920m in 2004 after it was forced to repay €1.4bn of state subsidies deemed illegal by the European Commission. However, that was an improvement on the previous year and, without the EC payment, WestLB would have turned a loss of almost €2bn in 2003 into a profit of €696m in 2004.