UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti was paid SFr14.9mn ($16.8mn) last year, retaining his status as Europe’s best-paid bank boss, just as remuneration in the financial services sector faces growing scrutiny in Switzerland.
Ermotti’s compensation was higher than the SFr14.4mn he was awarded in 2023, which was for nine months work but spread across a full year.
The disclosure of Ermotti’s pay in UBS’s annual report on Monday comes as Switzerland’s upper house last week narrowly backed a motion to cap executive remuneration in the banking sector to SFr5mn.
The proposal underscores how politically sensitive pay in the finance sector has become following UBS’s controversial takeover of former rival Credit Suisse in 2023. The motion still needs to move through the lower house and the country’s executive branch.
Ermotti returned to run UBS for a second time after the Swiss bank bought Credit Suisse in a deal orchestrated by Swiss regulators.
His pay for 2024 exceeds the £5.4mn received by HSBC’s chief executive Georges Elhedery, and the €9.75mn Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing is set to earn. It is also more than the €13.8mn Banco Santander’s executive chair Ana Botín was awarded.
Swiss banks are not subject to the same restrictions over executive remuneration as those in the Eurozone regulated by the European Central Bank.
The Swiss government is considering a range of measures intended to make the banking sector more secure following the demise of Credit Suisse. Critics have cautioned that Switzerland must remain competitive as a financial centre and banking hub.
