UBS on Monday followed Goldman Sachs’ example and said its top executives would not receive bonuses this year. But in a move that marks the biggest rethink by a bank of its compensation system to date and could set a benchmark for other banks, the Swiss bank also announced big changes to its pay system for all senior staff. UBS said its 12 most senior executives would not receive bonuses this year including Peter Kurer, chairman, Marcel Rohner, chief executive, and other executive board members. In future, Kurer’s pay, as chairman, would also be restricted to a single base salary in cash and a fixed number of shares, the bank said. For 2009, compensation for the group’s top 2-3% of staff will focus more on long-term performance. Under the changes, bonuses in cash and shares will be staggered over three years. The bonuses will also be adjusted to take into account losses as well as profits. Predicting a trend, Kurer said the entire financial services industry “will have to adjust its compensation models to the new realities”.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 5:47 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with goldman sachs, ubs. Edit this entry.