Credit Suisse to hand out £3m payments to senior executives

The group which cut its bonuses to UK managing directors in January, are finding ways to compensate their staff using a program that was launched in 2004/5 to help it retain senior staff.

PIP, or the Pay Incentive Plan was launched as a performance-related bonus for staff who remained loyal over five years.

The plan is now coming to fruition at a time when the bonus tax is introduced, the PIP is exempt, and staff on Credit Suisse's UK management are expecting to receive on average £3 million each.

It is not clear how many of the 400 London managing directors who will receive the windfall, although the final sum will be determined by Credit Suisse's share price performance over the next few weeks.

The bonuses of staff not under the PIP remain cut by 30 pct as announced in January.

Credit Suisse's PIPs are now also employed in Goldman Sachs.

Bankers who were given PIPs were not allowed to cash them in for five years and now having weathered the financial storm better than its rivals, Credit Suisse is in a position to hand out loyalty payments worth over £1 billion in stock.

The PIP payments are to be handed out to 300 bankers around the world, with head of Credit Suisse in the UK, James Leigh-Pemberton thought to be in line for one.

Brady Dougan, Chief Executive of the bank is thought to be receiving around £25 million.