UBS chief’s pay rose 11 per cent to £10.9m but wider bonus pool dropped to £2.75bn
UBS boss Ralph Hamers received a boost to his annual pay to the tune of a cool £10.9m, reflecting the bank’s strong performance in 2022, but its overall bonus pool fell.
Hamers pocketed CHF12.2m (£10.9m) in 2022, eleven per cent more than last year, with the figure including his base salary and the cash performance award payments granted during the year.
In its annual report published today, the bank said Hamers “successfully led UBS through a challenging year and delivered good financial results despite significant headwinds due to geopolitical and macroeconomic developments.”
UBS pointed to good profitability and the bank’s strong relative share price performance as evidence of his performance.
Across 2022 as a whole the bank recorded profit of $7.6bn, up two per cent on last year.
It saw a particularly strong performance in its wealth management division which offset the dramatic fall in its global markets division.
UBS also benefited from client outflows at Credit Suisse, which faced speculation that it might collapse in October last year. In the final quarter alone, UBS reported a $23bn influx in new fee-generating assets.
While Hamers pay packet increased, the overall bonus pool shrunk 10 per cent to $3.3bn.
Looking forward, UBS said it expects 2023 to be a “year of inflections, as investors try to identify turning points for inflation, interest rates, economic growth and financial markets against a complex geopolitical backdrop.”
Although it expects inflation to be lower at the end of 2023 than 2022, it said the impact of higher interest rates will weigh on economic growth and earnings.
“Economic growth should hit bottom later in the year, if, as we expect, financial conditions start to ease,” it said.
The bank expects to buy back more than USD5bn of shares in 2023 having returned $7.3bn to shareholders in 2022.
The Swiss lender also gave an update on its sustainability ambitions, reporting that sustainable investments as a share of total assets under management increased to 6.8 per cent, up from 5.5 per cent at the end of 2021.