UBS bosses urged to avoid job cuts and hikes in their pay after Credit Suisse deal

theguardian.com:

Worried UBS investors have urged the Swiss lender to avoid sweeping job cuts and inflating executive pay as they raised concerns about the creation of a mega-bank after the emergency takeover of smaller rival Credit Suisse.

Addressing more than 1,100 shareholders at the St Jakobshalle arena in Münchenstein, near Basel, Switzerland, UBS bosses said they understood why investors may be “bewildered or even angry” after the surprise deal that was announced on 19 March and followed weeks of panic about the health of the banking sector.

“It was a historic day and a day we hoped would not happen,” the chair of UBS, Colm Kelleher, said. “Yet it is a significant milestone, not only for UBS and Credit Suisse but also for Switzerland, for the global financial industry.”

While Kelleher acknowledged the government-orchestrated deal came with risks, he defended the takeover and said it presented a business opportunity for UBS. However, bosses said all options were on the table such as a future split or spin-off of Credit Suisse assets.

Some shareholders acknowledged the potential benefits of the takeover but said they were “concerned about this new giant bank”, which is expected to hold a combined $5tn (£4tn) in invested assets, including the possibility of unjustified pay hikes and job cuts. e

“This will in no way justify any inflation of remuneration,” one shareholder said, urging bosses to be prudent even as they prepared to manage a much-larger bank. “The current plan are already extremely generous,” the shareholder added.

Investors also raised the alarm about thousands of potential job cuts as bosses try to get rid of duplicate roles.

“Those synergies you were referring to would potentially costs more than 30,000 jobs worldwide,” a