It's UBS bonus day: "We're not shy about paying for top performance"
Today is the day at UBS. People are finding out their bonuses for 2024 and as we noted earlier, it's not clear that everyone will be happy: across UBS as a whole, "accruals for performance awards" are down. So too is compensation spending in the investment bank specifically.
Nonetheless, some senior people are bullish. Speaking off the record, one managing director (MD) in the equities business insists that, "If you are really good, UBS is not shy about paying for top performance." In his business, he says people are up double digits, down double digits and flat: "It really depends upon the strategic value of the seat," but people are paid competitively based on an "incredibly rigorous 360 degree process."
Not everyone seems this excited. One rates trader at the bank says bonuses are "crap" after a "total miss" last year. Ian Hale, the bank's head of GBP rates trading, quietly left along with another senior trader in December. John Newman, UBS's head of global fixed income trading, left in November; Mark Tinworth, Newman's predecessor left in September.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said today that the bank's approach to compensation is "balanced between rewarding employees and shareholders."
Last year, UBS paid its senior staff an average of $1.7m in total compensation, down from a peak of $2.2m in 2021. However, this included $736m of retention bonuses paid to ex-Credit Suisse staff. This year, insiders at the bank say some Credit Suisse people are no longer guaranteed and will therefore be at the mercy of their recent performance.
Some at UBS are thought to have assured bonuses, though. The 24 or so senior bankers hired from Barclays in the US in 2023 and 2024 are thought to be on generous multi-year guarantees. That's nice for them, but may drain the bonus pool for everyone else.
UBS declined to comment.
Photo by Julian Hanslmaier on Unsplash
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