UBS Cuts Bonus Pool for 2008 by More Than 80%

UBS Cuts Bonus Pool for 2008 by More Than 80% to SF2 Billion Email | Print | A A A By Elena Logutenkova Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, the European bank with the highest losses from the credit crisis, cut its bonus pool for 2008 by more than 80 percent. Variable compensation for the bank’s employees excluding brokers in the U.S. is being reduced, Andreas Kern, a spokesman for Zurich-based UBS,... [more]

UBS Cuts Bonus Pool for 2008 by More Than 80% to SF2 Billion Email | Print | A A A By Elena Logutenkova Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, the European bank with the highest losses from the credit crisis, cut its bonus pool for 2008 by more than 80 percent. Variable compensation for the bank’s employees excluding brokers in the U.S. is being reduced, Andreas Kern, a spokesman for Zurich-based UBS, said in a telephone interview today. The pool will be less than 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.75 billion), based on the 9.5 billion francs UBS has said previously it paid out for 2007. The bank is under contractual obligation to pay about 1.3 billion francs in variable compensation, Oswald Sigg, spokesman for the Swiss government, told a press conference in Bern. UBS bonuses were one of the matters discussed by the Swiss government at a Cabinet meeting today, Sigg said. Kern declined to comment on the figure, saying exact numbers will be published on Feb. 10. UBS, which has been under attack for bonus payments after it was forced to accept a $59.2 billion government aid package in October, has announced that Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner, his 11 colleagues on the executive board and Chairman Peter Kurer won’t get any variable pay for 2008. The bank is also revamping its compensation model to allow it to claw back parts of pay from some employees in the years after the award. To contact the reporters on this story: Elena Logutenkova in Zurich at elogutenkova@bloomberg.net Last Updated: January 28, 2009 10:35 EST [less]