Deutsche Bank Management Board Waives Bonuses for Third Year
Deutsche Bank Management Forgoes Bonuses for Third Straight Year
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG management waived its bonuses for a third consecutive year while the German lender is boosting payouts for bankers and traders despite reporting a loss for 2017.
The 12-member board won’t get variable compensation for 2017, a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman said Saturday, confirming comments by Chief Executive Officer John Cryan reported on the Die Zeit newspaper website.
The pool for employee bonuses will be more than 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion), according to a person familiar with the bank’s plans. That would exceed the 546 million euros paid in 2016, but is less than the 2.4 billion euros a year earlier. Cryan said the pool will be “significantly higher” than in 2016 but less than it was for 2015, according to Die Zeit.
Cryan is trying to motivate and retain highly-paid investment banking staff while keeping a lid on costs after three straight years of losses. Yet with revenue at a seven-year low, even a relatively small increase in compensation pushed the German lender’s investment bank unit into the red. Given the focus on costs, this year’s “generosity” will not be repeated next year, the CEO said last month.
Deutsche Bank didn’t say how much was set aside for the 2017 bonuses, which are typically paid in March. In remarks at a Zeit-sponsored event in Austin, Texas, Cryan dismissed media reports that the bonus pool will be about 1 billion euros, saying he didn’t know “where the billion is coming from.” Die Zeit said pay for staff will be “twice as high as previously reported.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Piotr Skolimowski in Frankfurt at pskolimowski@bloomberg.net, Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, James Amott
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