UBS has slashed its bonus pool by almost a fifth
UBS has become the latest investment banking giant to slash its bonus pool as uncertain conditions continued to bite for the world's largest lenders.
In the annual report it published today, UBS revealed its bonus pool has fallen 17 per cent, from SFr 3.5bn (£2.84bn) in 2015 to SFr 2.9bn in 2016.
Meanwhile, chief executive Sergio Ermotti kept his SFr 2.5m salary, which has been unchanged since 2011, but his total compensation fell to SFr 13.7m, from SFr 14.3m in 2015.
At least UBS workers can take solace in the fact they don't work for Deutsche Bank, which is expected to slash its bonus pool by 80 per cent, after it admitted at the beginning of this year a quarter of its staff will lose out on bonuses altogether.
Meanwhile, with one notable exception, UK lenders have roundly slashed their bonuses. The total bonus pool for HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Standard Chartered and Barclays fell to £5.6bn for 2016, compared with £5.9bn in 2015, when calculated on a constant currency basis.
But although RBS bankers lost out to the tune of eight per cent, with their bonus pool falling to £343m this year, Lloyds hiked its bonus, pushing it up 11 per cent to £393m after a bumper year.