Bonus claims batter Nomura
Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, is about to be hit by a raft of bonus claims.
Charles Ferguson of Ferguson Solicitors, a lawyer specialising in City bonus disputes, says his firm is representing at least five former Nomura traders who claim to have been underpaid.
The highest profile is Luis Marti-Sanchez, a bond trader who claims Nomura reneged on a verbal promise to pay him 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the profits he earned. The Times says the bank went on to pay a 1.3m bonus, equivalent to 4.3 per cent of his profits, entirely in deferred stock.
Ferguson tells eFinancialCareers.com the Marti-Sanchez case illustrates the difficulty of relying on verbal assurances when it comes to pay. "The City always used to say my word is my bond. It now appears that my word is the starting point for negotiations after the relationship has broken down," he says.
Wherever possible, Ferguson advises job seekers to ensure pay promises are put in writing,
If Marti-Sanchez wins the case, which is unlikely to come to court for another 10 months, he adds that it may reduce banks' willingness to pay a large proportion of bonuses as deferred stock. "When a large proportion of stock is paid, it's likely to impact the court's decision on whether a bank has acted in a perverse way," he says.
Nomura made the headlines in 2000 when Steven Clark an equities trader at the bank, successfully sued after he was denied a bonus following his dismissal.
