UBS chief executive Ralph Hamers enjoyed an 11 per cent pay bump last year, cementing his position as Europe’s best-paid bank boss.
The Dutch executive, who joined from Dutch bank ING in 2020, earned a total of SFr12.2mn ($13mn) in salary and bonuses, up from SFr11mn the year before, UBS disclosed in its annual report on Monday.
UBS enjoyed a strong finish to 2022 as it benefited from clients defecting from rival Credit Suisse, which has been beset by multiple crises. UBS’s wealth management business has helped cushion the bank from the decline in dealmaking that has hit rivals, including Goldman Sachs.
UBS shares have surged 76 per cent since Hamers took over even though the bank’s full-year profits edged up just 2 per cent.
“The board of directors recognised that Ralph Hamers successfully led UBS through a challenging year and delivered good financial results despite significant headwinds due to geopolitical and macroeconomic developments,” the bank wrote in its annual report.
Hamers had complained about his level of pay at ING, which was subject to strict EU rules on banker pay. On joining UBS, he became one of the highest-earning bank bosses in Europe, comfortably beating peers in the EU, the UK and Switzerland.
The increase in Hamers’ pay came as the Swiss lender’s overall bonus pool dropped 10 per cent to SFr3.3bn from the previous year.
For the group’s highest-paid employees, the bonus pool shrank 21 per cent, from SFr1.1bn in 2021 to SFr855mn last year. On average, the 699 so-called “key risk takers” received bonuses of SFr1.2mn. The decline reflected a drop in revenues at UBS’s investment bank last year.
In their full-year results, US banks reported a 16 per cent fall in investment banking revenues, with fixed income fees down 30 per cent and equity fees dropping 8 per cent.
Revenues in UBS’s global markets division dropped 11 per cent while its global banking unit suffered a 52 per cent fall in income, mainly driven by lower capital markets revenues.
Bankers across Wall Street have been braced for a drop off in bonuses following tough market conditions last year, with bonus pools cut by 30-40 per cent.
At Credit Suisse, executive board members went without a bonus last year, on the back of its second consecutive annual loss.
UBS returned a total of $7.3bn to shareholders in 2022 and has said it will increase its dividend by 10 per cent.
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