Half of Russian bankers not paid bonuses, report

By Ivan Anderzhanov

More than half of Russian bankers were not paid a bonus for last year, according to a survey of 160 foreign and domestic financial institutions by recruiter Antal Russia.

Just 47 percent of bankers got 2009 payouts which were doled out in the spring of this year. Many financiers were paid nothing at all while others had bonuses ‘deferred’, according to banking personnel who spoke to Emergingmarkets.me.

Of those professionals who got bonuses, half admitted that the bonus for 2009 remained the same or decreased in comparison with previous year while 46% stated they had an increase in bonus payments.

Half of the respondent professionals (49%) have changed the job for the last two years which is hardly a surprise in a Russian market which can be frequently characterised by musical chairs.

The level of basic salary was the main reason for changing job for 41% banking managers and 12% preferred to move to a new employer who offered more interesting bonus scheme. However the main reasons for changing job for professionals of banking sector remain career development (57%) and new challenge and more interesting work (53%).

Over 40% of respondents said that they were looking for a raise in base salary of more than 30%. “In part this high expectation on compensation is making up for recent pay freezes and bonuses that were small or not paid at all.

Karl Franzmann, head of the Antal Russia Banking Practice and former head of recruitment at Renaissance Capital, said: “Candidates have memories of the firms who hired aggressively during the boom market, promised high bonuses and then laid people off during the downturn.”

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