Raiffeisen bank announces CHF1 million executive pay cap
Switzerland’s third largest bank will limit the annual remuneration of top management to CHF1 million (around $1million) from July 1.
The announcement was made at the bank’s general meeting on Saturday in Crans-Montana. CEO Heinz Huber’s compensation has already been adjusted when he took up his duties in January. For comparison, the CEOs of Switzerland’s two largest banks UBS and Credit Suisse took home CHF13.9 million and CHF12.3 million respectively in 2018, according to a report External linkby labour union Unia.
The majority of delegates at the Raiffeisen meeting did not approve the 2018 remuneration report. However, they voted by a large majority in favour of the new compensation framework for 2019. In April, the bank stated that it will cut up to 200 jobs to save CHF100 million ($100 million) this year.
The group will continue to implement the measures resulting from the financial regulator’s (FINMA) accusations of shortcomings in governance. The FINMA investigation had concluded that Raiffeisen’s board of directors failed to adequately supervise its former CEO, Pierin Vincenz. This failure enabled him, at least potentially, to generate personal financial gain at the bank’s expense, FINMA said. The bank’s new organisational structure – aimed at addressing the governance issues – will also be effective from July 1, 2019.
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