Bonus conversations are said to be going down at Barclays Capital this afternoon, after the close. So, no details yet, but in the meantime, a few things to consider: Continue reading »
bonuses
Earlier today, as in a few minutes ago, we learned that UBS announced it would claw back 2010 bonuses for senior-ranking employees in the investment bank. This may have put a damper on some people’s commute home but in happier news? Those individuals will be getting paid for last year’s work (albeit at a slightly reduced rate) and the only strings attached are that they can never leave UBS. Continue reading »
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Banks
Bonus Watch ’12: UBS Investment Bankers Thought Zero Was The Minimum Bonus? They Thought Wrong
By Matt Levine
UBS investment bankers yesterday learned that their bonus pool would be down by 60%, and that anyone inclined to grumble to division head Carsten Kengeter should be aware that (1) he would have none of it and (2) he himself was taking a bonus of zero, so see point (1). Rank-and-file bankers were perhaps a mite peeved, but they learned today that they have nothing to complain about compared to their formerly better-compensated elders, for whom “down 60%” or “zero bonus” would be an absolute joy when the reality is more like this: Continue reading »
Today is bonus communication day at DB and while there are no specifics to be had just yet, apparently those hoping their decision to do the bare minimum last year would be handsomely rewarded were in for a disappointment. Continue reading »
…compensation costs remained stubbornly high, due in part to management’s decision to pay employees most of their bonuses immediately, rather than deferring big portions of pay to future years as some rivals have done. “We are very comfortable with our approach on deferrals at the firm and we didn’t need to increase it,” Chief Executive Kenneth Jacobs said in an interview. “There’s just no free lunch there.” [Reuters]
“Bonuses Met Wall Street Workers’ Expectations Says Survey” That Was Taken Before Majority Of Wall Street Workers Found Out What They Were Earning
By Bess LevinForty-five percent of respondents said “bonuses matched their expectations,” 11 percent received “a higher payout than they had anticipated,” and 34 percent were “disappointed by their bonus.” The results included financial services employees whose compensation was communicated by January 16, which means it excludes those who work at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank (Update: and UBS). [Bloomberg]
Some employees are preemptively miffed and, frankly, insulted.
“Deutsche bonus structure for Associates-Directors was revealed today:
*Up to eur50, all cash.
*Eur50-100, 70% deferred. Yes…
*Eur100+, 85% deferred.”
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC’s chairman on Friday acknowledged that the bank had miscalculated the public and political reaction to the £963,000 (around $1.5 million) bonus in shares awarded to Chief Executive Stephen Hester, who subsequently turned down the payment…”We knew it would be a difficult reaction, but the speed and scale of it took us by surprise,” Mr. Hampton said in a briefing with reporters. [WSJ]
The bonus is you get to keep your job: Continue reading »
Remember when UBS management announced they’d internally come to the conclusion they aren’t so great at investment banking and would thus be scaling back their manpower in said area? Apparently they’ve finally gotten around to doing so. Continue reading »
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Posted in:
Banks
Credit Suisse Traders Made The Unusual Mistake Of Committing CDO Fraud On Themselves
By Matt Levine
I’ve been thinking a lot about financial industry compensation recently, and probably so have you, for different reasons. As a non-recipient of said compensation, I’ve been waxing philosophical about how your bonus can incentivize you either to put on low-risk trades that are unlikely to blow up your firm or to go instead with high-risk overlevered bets that look good in December but will leave the place a smoking ruin in March, by which point you’ll be out of there with your pile of bonus CLOs. But if you don’t take kindly to other people telling you what to do / “incentivizing” you to do it, there’s always the do-it-yourself bonus, either in the traditional form (write checks to self) or in the slightly more complicated form of writing down the amount of money that you would like your trades to make, then getting a bonus based on the number you wrote down: Continue reading »
