Hurricanes and earthquakes badly dented profit at reinsurer Swiss Re in 2017. As a consequence, the company cut the bonuses for the management.
Christian Mumenthaler, the chief executive officer of Zurich-based Swiss Re, received a significantly lower total compensation in 2017 than a year earlier because his company was affected by a series of massive natural catastrophes. Swiss Re paid him a total of 5.23 million Swiss francs, down from 6.25 million a year earlier, according to the annual report published on March 15, 2018.
The fixed part of Mumenthaler’s compensation package increased to 1.6 million francs from 1.5 million a year earlier. But the variable part slumped. The total compensation for the 14-strong executive committee dropped to 43.2 million francs from 51.4 million in 2016.
Natural catastrophes cost the company a total of $4.7 billion last year. Net income therefore fell to $331 million from $3.56 billion.
Profit Down – Bonus Down?
At Swiss Re, the fluctuations in profit seem to affect the bonus of its executives without further delay. Not so at other financial service companies.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti received 14.2 million francs in 2017, up from 13.7 million a year earlier. UBS posted a profit of 1.1 billion francs, down from 3.2 billion a year earlier because of the U.S. tax reform.
Credit Suisse on March 23 will say how much it paid CEO Tidjane Thiam. Switzerland’s second-largest bank had a net loss of 983 million francs in 2017, which compared favorably with the 2.71 billion loss in 2016.
Growing Asian Influence
Swiss Re Asia launched its new regional headquarters in Singapore on January 18, 2018 and announced the composition of the board of directors in the region.
The world's second-largest reinsurer also named Lim Siong Guan, former group president of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, chairman of its board of the Asia business.
