Shareholder group rejects UBS pay and share buyback plans
The shareholder association Ethos is recommending that shareholders reject Swiss bank UBS's remuneration, share buyback programme and sustainability report at its AGM on April 10.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
“The remuneration of UBS’s executive bodies is too high compared to European financial institutions,” Ethos said in a statement on Thursday.
Ethos recognises that the bank has not further increased the remuneration of CEO Sergio Ermotti for 2024 compared to 2023. Nevertheless, the salary remains one of the highest in Switzerland and Europe.
+ How to tame UBS without making the bank toothless
Another criticism is that the variable remuneration of members of the Executive Board can amount to a maximum of seven times the basic salary. This potentially leads to excessive remuneration.
“Such high payments and the very high leverage for variable remuneration can encourage excessive risk-taking, as the financial crisis of 2008 or the recent collapse of Credit Suisse have shown”, said Ethos Director Vincent Kaufmann.
“Significant” sustainability gaps
The shareholders’ association is also in favour of strengthening the bank’s own funds and is therefore against the planned new share buyback programme.
The UBS Board of Directors’ proposal to buy back and cancel shares contradicts the current discussion on tightening capital requirements for large banks following the collapse of Credit Suisse, Ethos added.
The bank is also backtracking on certain sustainability commitments: UBS has watered down its ambitions with regard to climate change, diversity and equality as well as investment exclusion criteria.
According to Ethos, there are also significant gaps in the group’s sustainability report. For example, UBS only partially publishes greenhouse gas emissions in connection with loans granted.
UBS proud of performance
UBS did not wish to comment directly on Ethos’ recommendations. At the request of the news agency AWP, a spokesperson merely referred to statements made by Chairman of the Board of Directors Colm Kelleher in the 2024 annual report, which the bank published last week.
Management compensation for 2024 reflects the performance-based approach. And the majority of the variable remuneration will be deferred over several years.
The teams had made progress with integration in 2024, strengthening UBS’s position as a leading global wealth manager and confirming the bank’s role as a driver of prosperity in the Swiss domestic market, said Kelleher.
More
UBS mulls moving HQ abroad, according to media report
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
More
The Böögg, Switzerland’s exploding psychic snowman
More
Switzerland turns train tracks into solar power plants
More
Switzerland’s housing shortage: how bad is it?
More
The Swiss Alps ski village that is luring nervous Americans
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.