Deutsche Bank slashes bonuses
Deutsche Bank has revealed that it has cut its bonus pool by 77%, to coincide with the release of its 2016 annual report; as a result of the cut, the variable pay pot has fallen from €2.4bn ($2.58bn) to €500m ($537m). Meanwhile, the management board of the bank decided not to take a bonus for a second consecutive year.

Deutsche Bank announces it has slashed bonus pool by 77 per cent after reporting losses of €1.4bn for 2016

Deutsche Bank announced this morning it has sliced 77 per cent from its bonus pool.

The Frankfurt-headquartered bank released its annual report for 2016, which revealed the firm had cut its variable pay pot to €500m (£433.1m) for the year, down from €2.4bn.

The bank, which had already announced it made a €1.4bn net loss for 2016, also said today it had reduced its total pay pool to €8.9bn, down 15 per cent compared with 2015's €10.5bn.

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The bank's management board, which is headed up by Yorkshire-born chief exec John Cryan, did not take a bonus for the year, the second time in a row they have opted not to.

"2016 was a very challenging year for us at Deutsche Bank," Cryan wrote in a letter to shareholders. "It was also a year in which we demonstrated our resilience and changed much for the better, despite a tough environment.

"We focused our business and significantly strengthened our core capital ratio. We continued to make Deutsche Bank safer and simpler."

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Deutsche Bank's annual sweeteners for staff consist of an individual bonus based on whether an employee has hit their targets and a bonus from a group pool calculated on the firm's financial performance.

Back in January, it announced anybody with vice president, director or managing director in their job title would not be receiving their individual bonus, a move which will affect one in four staff.

Meanwhile, City A.M. revealed earlier this month the bank had also halved the amount of the payout bankers could be expecting from the group bonus pool. A statement in the bank's annual report confirmed this is the case.

The bank recently announced it would be embarking on a €8bn rights issues, as well as various other restructuring efforts, in a bid to shore up its capital. The subscription period for the share issue is due to begin tomorrow.

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The bank has said it believes the rights issue and associated plans will allow it to target a fully-loaded common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio safely above 13 per cent and to pay a competitive dividend from 2018 onwards.

By comparison, the lender's CET 1 ratio at the end of 2016 stood at 11.9 per cent and no dividend was announced for last year.