Investment banks cut down guaranteed bonuses

London: Investment banks are using far fewer lucrative "guaranteed" bonus packages to attract recruits in response to the global regulatory crackdown on bank pay, according to a closely watched industry report.

Guaranteed bonuses, where employees are promised a fixed incentive payment regardless of their performance or their business's profitability, accounted for about 5 per cent of the bonuses paid out for 2009 at 37 leading financial companies surveyed by the Institute of International Finance, the industry lobby group.

That is down from an average of nearly 10 per cent of bonuses for 2008 and 8 per cent for 2007.

The survey shows that investment banks have all but abolished using so-called "multi-year" guarantees, a controversial practice already outlawed, in effect, by several regulators, including the UK's Financial Services Authority.

Previously untracked

Nearly 99 per cent of the guaranteed bonuses given in 2009 were single-year guarantees, versus 92 per cent in 2008 and 91 per cent in 2007, according to the survey.

The IIF had not tracked bonus levels before 2007.

The latest report, which was conducted jointly with consultancy Oliver Wyman, is likely to be cited by banks as evidence that they are not seeking to evade new guidelines on pay put forward by the Financial Stability Board, the international standards-setting body, as well as their national regulators.

But the report also reveals that banks have more work to do on aligning pay with long-term risks to their businesses, as well as on disclosing more information to shareholders about the size of their bonus pools and how they are allocated among employees.

Less than 40 per cent of the firms have implemented the FSB's full guidelines in technical areas such as adjusting for liquidity risk and the impact of the timing of deferred earnings.

Bank pay continues to be a political flashpoint on both sides of the Atlantic in particular because of the fact that the industry's recovery out paces that of the broader economy.

Strong earnings

In spite of volatile markets and concerns of a double-dip recession, banks such as Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have posted strong earnings in the first half of the year, setting aside billions to pay their staff.

Credit Suisse, the Swiss banking group, this week stoked the controversy further by awarding about 400 senior employees in London a one-off, midyear bonus.

— Financial Times