Credit Suisse may halve 2022 bonus pool -Bloomberg News

ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse is considering a 50% cut to its 2022 bonus pool, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, as the Swiss bank presses on with efforts to revive its fortunes after a series of scandals and heavy losses.

The bank, whose shares were trading up 2.03% to 3.120 Swiss francs at 1101 GMT, declined to comment on the report. The European Stoxx 600 banks index was up 0.15%.

Credit Suisse, which in November flagged a fourth quarter pretax loss of up to 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.58 billion), cut its 2021 bonus pool by 32% after a loss for that year.

Chopping that in half again for 2022 would put the Swiss bank at the sharp end of expected industry-wide bonus cuts of between 30% and 50% in London and New York, according to recruiters canvassed by Reuters.

They said the drop is a consequence of last year’s sharp slowdown in mergers and stock offerings as debt financing markets collapsed and stock market volatility hurt valuations.

Credit Suisse’s variable compensation pool for 2021 – at a time when the industry as a whole was handing out the biggest awards since 2006 as the economy roared back from COVID-19 – fell to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.17 billion) as the bank cut regular deferred awards but sweetened pay for senior bankers

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said outcomes for 2022 were likely to diverge widely, with some employees likely to receive no bonus at all. Discussions were, however, not yet finalised and could still change, it added.

Credit Suisse has been battered by mishaps, including a $5.5 billion loss on U.S. investment firm Archegos. It also had to freeze $10 billion worth of supply chain finance funds linked to insolvent British financier Greensill.

Last month it successfully completed the final part of a 4 billion Swiss franc ($4.28 billion) fundraising and said its liquidity levels had been boosted.

($1 = 0.9231 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru and John Stonestreet; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Rachel More and Alexander Smith)