BONUS PAYMENTS:DEUTSCHE BANK'S leading investment bankers are to join chief executive Josef Ackermann and other senior managers in waiving millions of euros in bonus payments this year.
The decision may increase public pressure on other bankers to follow suit amid growing condemnation of excesses in the industry during the period that led up to the global financial crisis.
It is also a tacit acknowledgement of the furore that would erupt in Germany if Deutsche's top executives were to receive bonuses, after taxpayers were left standing behind a potential €500 billion ($670 billion) bail-out for the country's banks.
Deutsche said the 10 members of its global executive committee - including Anshu Jain, head of global markets, and Michael Cohrs, head of global banking - would follow Mr Ackermann's lead and give up any bonuses earned this year.
London-based Mr Jain and Mr Cohrs are among the bank's highest-paid staff. They are among six non-board level members of the executive committee who last year earned a combined €97 million in pay and bonuses.
The group also includes Kevin Parker, head of asset management; Rainer Neske, head of private and business clients; Pierre de Weck, head of private wealth management, and Jürgen Fitschen, global head of regional management.
Deutsche only reveals the individual pay of members of its four-person management board, including Mr Ackermann, and its 20-strong supervisory board.
Mr Ackermann earned €14 million last year, €12.7 million of which was performance-related or tied to long-term incentives.
Deutsche's chief executive has often been a lightning rod for popular anger at high executive pay in egalitarian Germany.
Michael Glos, Germany's economy minister, urged other bank executives to follow Deutsche's example, which was revealed as the country's parliament prepared to approve the financial sector rescue plan.
In an interview with Bild, Germany's most widely-read newspaper, Mr Ackermann said his bonus payment, which would have amounted to millions of euros, should instead be shared by "deserving employees who need the money more than I do".
Deutsche's management and supervisory board members will also forgo bonuses. Last year management board members other than Mr Ackermann earned a combined €16.2 million in performance-related pay, while supervisory board members received €3.7 million.
Germany's largest bank has not been hit as hard as many of its peers by the financial crisis. Although it has had to make several billions of euros of writedowns, it has not sought fresh capital - other than for the acquisition of a minority stake in local rival Postbank.
- (Financial Times service)
