Credit Suisse Pays New CEO Thiam $4.7 Million for 2015

ZURICH—Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam received 4.57 million Swiss francs ($4.7 million) in total pay for 2015, a year in which he launched an ambitious bid to restructure the troubled Swiss bank.

The overall bonus pool at Zurich-based Credit Suisse declined 11% for the year, compared with 2014, as anticipated, according to a report published on Thursday. Employees in the beleaguered investment bank saw their bonuses decline by more than 30%, Credit Suisse said, adding that 31% of the investment bank employees saw their bonuses cut by more than half.

Mr. Thiam, who assumed the CEO role in July, had requested a 40% cut to his 2015 bonus compared with what he might have otherwise received. He has said publicly that this was a gesture of "solidarity" with employees seeing their own bonuses reduced.

Credit Suisse said Thursday that its board accepted Mr. Thiam's request, and gave him an award of 2.86 million francs—40% of which was paid in cash. In addition, Mr. Thiam received a so-called replacement award paid in stock, designed to compensate him for remuneration left behind at his former employer Prudential PLC. That award was valued at 9.6 million francs as of March 17, Credit Suisse said.

Shares of Credit Suisse have tumbled more than 40% since Mr. Thiam's tenure began, as the bank has endeavored to revamp in a period of volatile markets.

The pay for Credit Suisse's top executive and employees contrasts with that for rival Swiss bank UBS Group AG, which increased its bonus pool for 2015 by 14% compared with the year earlier, while UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti received a significant increase in total pay, to 14.3 million francs.

However, Credit Suisse isn't the only European bank to issue pay cuts for 2015—Deutsche Bank AG cut its bonus pool for the year by 17%.

Credit Suisse reported a loss of 2.9 billion Swiss francs for 2015, compared with a profit of nearly 1.9 billion francs in the prior year. The fourth quarter of the year proved to be particularly painful— Credit Suisse posted a large loss for the period, as significant problems emerged at its investment bank.

Earlier this week, Mr. Thiam sought to address those problems, which included a number of large, illiquid positions accumulated by his trading unit, by announcing an additional 2,000 job cuts at the investment bank and a sharp reduction in its allocation of risk weighted assets.

The highest paid member of Credit Suisse's executive board in 2015 is no longer a member of the executive board.

Rob Shafir, who was co-head of Credit Suisse's former Private Banking and Wealth Management division before Mr. Thiam reshuffled his executive ranks last October, received 7.88 million francs in total pay for the year, including a bonus of 6.3 million francs.

Credit Suisse said its board took into account Mr. Shafir's contributions in his previous role, as well as his help in offloading Credit Suisse's private banking business in the U.S. to Wells Fargo & Co. Mr. Shafir now serves as chairman of the Americas for the bank.

Write to John Letzing at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 24, 2016 03:55 ET (07:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.