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Swedish banks' bonus bonanza continues

Published: 29 Sep 09 09:57 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22354/20090929/

The four main Swedish banks, some of which have requested bailout money from shareholders and the state, are expected to dish out a whopping 5.4 billion kronor ($769 million) in employee bonuses for 2009, despite substantial credit losses.

Amongst the four major Swedish financial institutions, SEB is expected to shell out 2.4 billion in variable compensation – a 200 million kronor increase on last year's payout, according to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

Moreover, SEB is only expected to earn a modest 1.1 billion kronor this year, less than half of the bank’s projected bonus payouts.

The bank's profit-bonus relationship bothers Göran Lilja, who manages SEB’s relations with employee unions.

“Existing bonus agreements take time to chance that becomes problematic to justify high variable compensation when the bank as a whole has had really bad results,” he told DN.

While Nordea, the largest of Sweden's four major banks, has not specifically accounted for variable compensation payouts, at least a billion kronor has been reserved for bonuses in the bank's half-year budget.

And Swedbank, a participant in the state's guarantee program, is expected to pay 800 billion kronor in bonuses, despite losing 8.9 billion kronor this year.

Meanwhile, Handelsbanken is expected to pay out an estimated 200 million kronor in employee bonuses. Funds has also been set aside for the bank's staff profitsharing foundation, Oktagonen.

Most of the big bonus money paid out by the banks goes to the brokers, analysts and fund managers working in their investment banking divisions, according to DN.

TT/Charlotte Webb (news@thelocal.se)

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10:52 September 29, 2009 by BCR
Hmmm... let the angry comments begin:
10:58 September 29, 2009 by hjoian
let the customers pay out for the banks losing our money,paying their wages and their bonus.Suggest leaving as little money as possible in ANY bank,with todays interest rates,whats the point? Mans greed will always be his own downfall....man will never learn...and WE are supposed to be intelligent???? Pathetic.
11:20 September 29, 2009 by mdeklyn
Angry - speechless is more appropriate
11:49 September 29, 2009 by CarlBlack
Quite poor quality of article - It make sense to compare the amount of bonuses to the total amount of paid salaries or to a number of employees, none of this is present in the article. And above it a huge typo: Swedbank will really pay 800 billion kronor , not 800 million?
13:37 September 29, 2009 by Petalpusher
@carl - haha. looks the local can use in hiring editors.
14:30 September 29, 2009 by Rick Methven
"Most of the big bonus money paid out by the banks goes to the brokers, analysts and fund managers working in their investment banking divisions, according to DN"

I still have a hard job with this Bank bonus thing.

I run my own business. If I have a good year then I can pay myself a bonus and have a nice extra holiday or something. If I have a bad year, I can not pay myself a bonus. Maybe I should go to my bank and ask them. that as I have lost money and can not pay myself a bonus, will they pay me one
18:31 September 29, 2009 by Nemesis
On the basis of this, nationalise SEB. Fire everyone above branch manager.

This is twisted and sick.

There now is no arguement against regulation of the banks. Only the most dogmatic will be against regulation, for the sake of dogma.

SEB almost crashed the economy. They should be facing criminal charges, not getting bonus's.
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