Credit Suisse Group AG is offering selective mid-year salary increases to top wealth managers, adding to retention pay at the investment bank as it seeks to stem defections after the Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital scandals.
The lender is boosting base salaries in wealth management by as much as 20% at the top end, according to people familiar with the payments, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The out-of-cycle increases have been applied selectively across all levels in recent weeks, from junior employees to managing directors, the people said.
While it’s not unprecedented for top talent to get a mid-year salary bump, the increases may have more urgency this year amid some notable departures and with the scandals expected to weigh on year-end awards.
Credit Suisse’s losses from Archegos and the collapse of Greensill have dented the lender’s reputation and left it a fertile hunting ground for competitors seeking to attract new talent. Many of the departures so far have affected the investment bank, where the firm has offered retention bonuses to help offset the hit to stock-based awards.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment.
Even though Credit Suisse’s new Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio has indicated that wealth management is at the centre of the bank’s strategy, client advisors still took a reputational blow from the Greensill scandal. Credit Suisse sold risky supply chain finance funds to its own private banking clients as safe investments, leaving them to pick up the tab when the firm went bust.
More than 50 front office employees have left since the most recent troubles began on March 1. These include at least 20 managing directors in key roles in the securities unit.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.