The huge bonus payments at Credit Suisse have been a source of criticism for years – and this is the case today. Several hundred people demonstrated on Zurich’s Paradeplatz.
In fact, the bonus payments from CS are considerable: According to calculations by the “Tages-Anzeiger”, the bank has made a total loss of more than 3 billion francs in the last ten years. In the same period, however, she still paid 32 billion francs in bonuses to top managers.
Immediate bonus ban
This has to end now, demands politicians. Even the FDP wants an immediate bonus ban for the top management of the big bank. “It is also a matter of decency that Credit Suisse is now exercising restraint with regard to bonuses for top management,” says FDP President Thierry Burkhard.
The Federal Council should pronounce these bonus bans based on the Banking Act.
The same demand also comes from the left: “People on the street don’t understand why they don’t get inflation compensation for their pensions, but the bankers who have once again brought this country to the abyss and continue to cash in,” said SP Co-President Cedric wormwood.
Time is running out
According to media reports, CS wants to pay out bonuses this week. Alfred Mettler, who was a finance professor in the USA for over 20 years and experienced the financial crisis first-hand, also criticizes this bonus culture: “If you look at the history of CS and especially its headlines, its losses, then the bonus culture is of course in the completely got out of hand in the last few years,” says Mettler.
That would certainly create a major problem for UBS in the short term.
However, now is the wrong time to correct this, adds Mettler. You have to be aware that there are a lot of “mercenaries” in investment banking. If the promised bonuses were not paid out, they would be thrown off the ship relatively quickly. “That would certainly create a major problem for UBS in the short term,” says Mettler.
Legend:
According to media reports, CS wants to pay out bonuses this week.
SRF
The irony of history is that UBS is dependent on the knowledge and experience of precisely these people – at least now when it is taken over. Nevertheless, one must fundamentally reconsider this bonus system later on.