New UBS Investment Bankers See Smaller Pay Gain on Promotion
(Bloomberg) — Junior investment bankers at UBS Group AG got a smaller pay bump upon their promotion to the first rung of associate this year, following changes to compensation structures at the Swiss lender.
Analysts based in Zurich learned in July they would be promoted to the ‘Associate 0’ level at a base salary of about 155,000 Swiss francs ($188,020), people familiar with the matter said. That tier is paid about 20,000 francs less than previously, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential details.
UBS bankers are still progressing faster to the higher-paid associate ranks than they used to, as the Swiss bank cut the analyst tenure from three to two years in 2023. Yet the addition of the intermediate layer was prompted by UBS leadership’s view that the jump from analyst to associate pay was too large, the people said.
Junior UBS bankers will stay in the position of Associate 0 for six months and will then receive a further pay increase to the original 175,000 francs as they move up to Associate 1, the people said. The adjustment, which is mirrored by similar changes in the bank’s units across Europe, doesn’t affect existing associate bankers, the people said.
UBS declined to comment on the changes.
The base pay for the latest generation of UBS Zurich investment banking associates is still substantially higher than the median Swiss gross salary, as reported by the country’s statistics office. UBS has cut more than 20,000 full-time equivalents since the acquisition of Credit Suisse in 2023 — including at its home base in Switzerland. That’s contributed to a doubling of unemployed bankers in the Canton of Zurich in less than three years.
Other major lenders are also making similar changes to their compensation structure, with Barclays Plc saying earlier this year it’s moving to pay its bankers more like Wall Street firms, offering higher variable compensation and lower fixed pay. Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc. has slashed the time its investment-banking analysts need to wait to advance to associate level to two years from three.
Switzerland is one of the most competitive investment banking markets in Europe, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. all present in the country.
UBS carried out a further round of job cuts earlier this year tied to the integration of Credit Suisse. It eliminated several hundred positions across its operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, mostly affecting support functions.
–With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster.
(Adds changes at other lenders in seventh paragraph)
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