Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, is planning to boost its bonus payouts this year by up to 25 percent, Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung said on Sunday. The newspaper cited a source with access to UBS top management as saying that Europe's biggest wealth manager would increase the bonus pot for staff in the Swiss business by 15 percent, while wealth managers would get up to 25 percent more.
A UBS spokesman declined to comment on the report. He said the bank would detail bonuses payable on 2010 business when it releases its fourth-quarter results on February 8. The paper said that depending on what is decided for UBS's investment banking business, the total bonus payout could rise to 4 billion Swiss francs for 2010 from 3 billion for 2009.
The paper quoted Swiss politicians condemning the higher bonus plans by the bank, which had to be bailed out by the government after writing down more than 50 billion francs of toxic assets in the crisis.