By Ariane Luthi
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti’s total pay was 14.9 million Swiss francs ($16.9 million) last year, with the bank keeping his remuneration in check as it navigates a tense political debate about how it is regulated.
That compares with the 14.4 million francs for nine months’ work in 2023 when Ermotti returned to UBS to oversee the integration of Credit Suisse. Even with the shortened work year, that made him then the best-paid boss among leading European banks.
Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter publicly questioned whether that sum was appropriate, fueling friction between the bank and the government as the regulatory debate intensified.
Last year, Ermotti’s base salary remained stable, while his variable compensation fell to 12.1 million francs from 12.25 million francs in 2023, the bank said in its annual report.
His total compensation was lower than that of David Layton, the CEO of Swiss private equity firm Partners Group, who received almost 17 million francs last year.
UBS bought its former rival Credit Suisse for just 3 billion francs in a state-engineered deal after the once-powerful institution fell apart in a welter of scandals.
The UBS that emerged from the takeover has a balance sheet bigger than the Swiss economy, stirring concern about what would happen if the enlarged bank failed, and leading to calls to draw up tougher regulations to prevent another meltdown.
Central to that is how much additional capital UBS should hold, and in the annual report the bank criticized what it called an “often ill-informed public debate” in Switzerland about potential risks stemming from its business activities.
The Swiss upper house of parliament backed a motion this month to cap bankers’ pay at between 3 and 5 million francs ($3.4 million-$5.7 million).
UBS said that total fixed and variable compensation for its executive board in 2024 was 143.6 million francs, up from 140.3 million francs a year earlier.
The group-wide bonus pool stood at $4.7 billion last year compared with $4.5 billion in 2023.
($1 = 0.8837 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Ariane Luthi; Editing by Dave Graham and Edwina Gibbs)
