The mainstream press was mostly up in arms on Wednesday at the thought of Alexandre Mouradian, a 38-year-old London broker awarding himself a £1.32m bonus, and then suing when his employer, Tradition Securities and Futures, shortchanged him to the tune of £92,571.
‘My £1.3m bonus just isn’t enough‘: The £300,000-a-year City banker who is suing for £92,000 more
Those inured to the mega-buck bonuses commonplace at most banks won’t yet be batting an eyelid — in the City greed is very much a relative characteristic. But then the story gets more interesting.
Mouradian was the head of Tradition’s exchange-traded options desk, managing, according to the FT’s scoop, a team of seven employees and a consultant. The remuneration package for that team allows for a bonus pot equivalent to 60 per cent of net billed income twice a year. A pot Mouradian was in charge of doling out among his staff.
For the second half of 2006, that bonus pot amounted to £1.43m.
Mouradian awarded himself £1.32m – 92 per cent of the bonus pot – leaving:
£ 000,110,000.00
Kerching!
Reports the FT:
Two junior employees were awarded payments of £60,000 and £47,000, while another received £2,000.
There’s always the chance that his team were just really rubbish, one supposes.