Friday March 12th 2021
Strong increase in 2020
Deutsche Bank pays billions in bonuses
Despite the Corona crisis, Deutsche Bank's investment business is doing very well – in 2020 the company will post a profit for the first time in six years. The bonus payments will therefore be increased to almost two billion euros. Nevertheless, the bank laid off 2,900 employees last year.
Despite sharp criticism, Deutsche Bank has significantly increased its bonus payments for the past year. The variable remuneration rose by 29 percent to 1.9 billion euros, as the financial institution announced with the publication of the annual report for 2020. Deutsche Bank justified the payments with the "significantly better financial results and the goals achieved" in 2020 and with the fact that it wanted to "keep top performers". Last year, the bank was back in the black for the first time since 2014 – the net profit amounted to 624 million euros, the group result attributable to the shareholders of the bank was 113 million euros. The investment business was decisive for the good result.
The nearly 4,300 employees in the bank's investment department receive almost half of the bonus payments, namely 876 million euros. In 2019 there were still almost 11,000 employees, who all received 602 million euros. Five investment bankers will each receive eight to eleven million euros for 2020, which is higher remuneration than their boss Christian Sewing. According to the annual report, the CEO receives 7.4 million euros. All members of the board of directors together – "an annual average of ten people" – are reportedly paid a total of 50 million euros. For 2019, eight members of the Management Board received total remuneration of 36 million euros.
Initially, 4.6 million euros more were planned for the board members. However, the total amount was reduced "against the background of the macroeconomic consequences triggered by the corona pandemic," as the bank explained. The remuneration of the chairman of the supervisory board, Paul Achleitner, had also been "reduced by one twelfth". The total remuneration for all employees remained the same at 10.1 billion euros. However, the bank had to spend less money on fixed salaries because it had cut jobs. The number of jobs fell by around 2,900 to 84,7000 worldwide in 2020.
The service union Verdi had already criticized the planned higher bonuses weeks before the publication of the annual report. "It cannot be shown that one and the same group on the one hand pays higher bonuses for the investment bankers who are already very well paid and at the same time cuts thousands of jobs and denies the low-paid employees more wages and a 13th month salary in the call centers", Verdi representative Jan Duschck, who sits on the bank's supervisory board for the union, told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". According to media reports, the high bonus payments also met resistance from the banking supervision of the European Central Bank. According to the plan, more than two billion euros were initially planned at Deutsche Bank.
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