UBS Pays Top Bankers More Million-Plus Bonuses: NZZ

(Bloomberg) -- Switzerland’s biggest banks are paying million-plus bonuses to more top executives, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported.

UBS Group AG employs 675 “key risk takers” who received total compensation of 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.19 billion) in 2018, accounting for a quarter of all bonus payments, NZZ said, citing the banks’ annual reports. On average, the elite bankers at UBS each received 1.8 million francs per year in compensation, NZZ said.

Credit Suisse Group AG, meanwhile, employs more than 1,000 “key risk takers,” twice as many as six years ago, according to NZZ.

NZZ said that according to federal wage surveys, Swiss bank employees receive an average annual bonus of 25,000 francs, down 38 percent from 2008.

UBS and Credit Suisse shares each lost about a third of their value in 2018. UBS’s 13-person leadership group was awarded a total combined salary of 101 million francs in 2018, NZZ said.

A UBS spokesperson told the newspaper that the absolute performance of the share price is “not a direct indicator” of management performance.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Paul Abelsky

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