Credit Suisse slashed the bonus pool for traders
On a call following the announcement, CEO Tidjane Thiam said the firm would cut bonuses by 36% in the global markets - or sales and trading - division, according to the FT.
Thiam called it a "very, very severe level of remuneration cut."
The firm highlighted the troubles facing its global markets division in a presentation.
That division had "declining revenues against [a] high and inflexible cost base," according to the presentation.
The bank's global markets business generated 7.4 billion Swiss francs in revenue in 2015, down 14%, with fixed income responsible for the bulk of that drop. Fixed income revenues fell 20% year-on-year, while equities sales and trading revenues dropped 6%.
The business was "adversely impacted by high inventory of long-dated illiquid assets from the legacy fixed income business," the bank said.
The fixed income trading business hurt banks across Wall Street in 2015. Morgan Stanley responded to the headwinds by cutting 25% of its headcount in that division, while Goldman Sachs said it would make adjustments to address the "cyclical and secular pressures" in that business.
Credit Suisse said in October last year that it would largely shut its macro trading business, which focuses on things like currencies and interest rates, in Europe and Asia.
It's not just the trading division that will see its bonuses affected for 2015. The total bonus pool was down 11% from 2014, according to the FT.
In January, Thiam said the current, fixed pay model for investment bankers "does not work" because investment banks have cyclical revenue streams.
"The business is structurally quite profitable provided the pay can go up and down. It's the 'and down' that they don't accept," Thiam said, according to the FT.
If you look at the balance sheet, compensation expenses within global markets actually increased by 3% in 2015. That's because deferred bonuses in previous years showed up in the results for 2015.
Deutsche Bank also posted a loss for 2015. Senior executives' bonuses were canceled for 2015 at that firm.
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