Swiss bankers who rely on consultants to make decisions paid $205k each

Swiss bank Julius Baer has a new CEO. Stefan Bollinger is an ex-Goldman partner who’s fond of sneakers, and inherited a stable of pretty well-paid – if a bit headless – bankers.

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Julius Baer’s Q4 results, which were released today, tell a fuller story. The firm’s full-year operating income grew by just 1%, despite the 16% growth in Assets Under Management (AuM). Bollinger in turn noted his “conviction” in the bank’s “distinctive positioning”. 

Operating expenses, however, grew by 3%. Most of that was driven by a growth in “personnel expenses”, a broad pot that includes compensation, pension plans, and social security contributions among others.

The salary and bonus pot grew most of all, by 6%. The number of full-time employees (FTE) at the firm grew too, although by less than 3%. Average pay, therefore, went up by around 4%: from CHF 180k ($197k) per head to around CHF 187k ($205k).

Unless Bollinger intends to cut the pay pot, that number should be squeezed upward over the next few years, too. The bank has already announced that it intends to cut “hundreds” of jobs over the next couple of years. Bollinger alluded to that in his inaugural results day statement too, citing the “challenges” the bank has “on both the revenue and cost side.”

But why is Julius Baer a bit headless? Well, as Bollinger discovered when he arrived, it was a bit overreliant on management consultants. Bloomberg reported last month that Bollinger said at his first company town hall that he had “never seen” a bank with so many. He also told the firm that staff need to believe in their own decision-making abilities, a statement which allegedly earned him some applause.

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