UBS bonuses said to be so small, delay was necessary
There's not really very much to add here. According to CNBC UBS bonuses this year were going to be:
a) So small it would have been shameful to pay them
b) So disproportionately allocated to top performers, there was nothing left for anyone else.
This is what CNBC said on the subject yesterday:
'While the bonus pool was going to bring money to the top 30 percent of performers at the firm, the average performers, who comprise roughly 60 percent of the bankers, would have received virtually nothing.
"It was so low that we didn't even preview it with our work force," said another senior exec. "You can't operate a bank that way if you expect to keep having enough employees to do the work."'
We have been predicting bonus annihilation at UBS for a long time.
The departure of John Cryan in December was possibly the death knell for decent payments: Cryan had promised to pay people no matter what. With him gone, it seems the bank may have tried to only pay senior staff and anyone on a guarantee.
CNBC says bonus announcements have now been delayed for a week. Average performers at UBS can only hope the bank uses that time to find some more money from somewhere. Where, is not clear.
