Deutsche Bank delays bonuses company-wide until April 1

Posted by Zora Stowers on Sunday, May 19, 2024

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Pay raises at Deutsche Bank are getting pushed back this year — and they won’t kick in until April Fool’s Day.

Scrambling to slash expenses, the beleagured German financial giant is delaying 2020 raises for employees worldwide to April 1, back from the normal Jan. 1, The Post has learned. Bonuses will be announced and paid by the end of March, as in previous years.

In a Monday memo obtained by The Post, Chief Executive Christian Sewing blamed an urgent need to cut costs after years of scandals and fines that have cost tens of billions of dollars.

“For the bank to be competitive and meet its goals for sustainable returns to shareholders it is vital that we further manage costs in a disciplined manner,” Sewing wrote. “This also relates to compensation.”

Deutsche Bank, which is set to announce its fourth quarter and full-year results on Thursday, confirmed that the annual effective date for pay adjustments will be pushed back permanently to April 1.

“We will continue to compensate employees for their qualifications, experience and skills, commensurate with the requirements, size and scope of their role,” Deutsche Bank said.

The CEO tried to soothe nerves in the companywide memo, insisting that Deutsche Bankers will be paid “appropriately and competitively.”

“We carefully assessed how this decision would impact our employees and benchmarked ourselves against peers,” Sewing added.

Compensation costs have dogged Deutsche for years now, and the bank’s attempts to cut back on salaries and bonuses have caused the global financial firm to hemorrhage talent.

Former CEO John Cryan paid out no bonuses in 2017 after agreeing with the US Department of Justice on a fine of $7.2 billion for his bank’s role in the 2008 mortgage crisis. Things did not improve much on the bonus front in 2018 or 2019, despite the bank bouncing back slowly under the leadership of Sewing, who took the reins in April 2018.

Last year through the end of the third quarter, Deutsche Bank spent $9.25 billion on compensation.

Last year, Deutsche Bank said it planned to slash headcount to 74,000 by the year 2022. The company’s overall headcount stood at 89,900 at the end of the third quarter.

That was after a series of layoffs last year that included 126 employees getting axed in the New York City office.

Deutsche Bank shares on the New York Stock Exchange recently changed hands at $8.66, up 1.5 percent.

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