Boris Collardi’s pay slid last year because the Swiss banker is leaving millions on the table following his defection from Julius Baer. What about Pictet’s «golden handshake»?
Just over four months ago, the high-profile private banker blindsided Julius Baer with news that he was leaving for a partnership at prestigious rival Pictet.
On Monday, the Swiss bank disclosed the financial consequences of Boris Collardi’s decision: his pay will shrink to 1.7 million Swiss francs, from almost 6.5 million francs in 2016, the bank said in its annual report released on Monday.
The reason? Collardi isn't being paid a bonus and has to leave behind over 7 million francs worth of stock awards that hadn’t vested yet when he told Julius Baer in November that he was leaving, along with an undisclosed amount of deferred cash. He also repaid a 12.1 million franc loan for investment properties that he had taken out from the bank.
«Golden Handshake»
To be sure, Collardi’s fate isn’t an unusual one: on Wall Street, the practice of leaving unvested benefits on the table is commonplace. Usually, a «golden handshake» awaits with a new employer. UBS’ Andrea Orcel is a prominent example: his 24.9 million franc payday from UBS five years ago made up for relinquishing Bank of America Merrill Lynch awards upon departing.
The only problem? Collardi shouldn’t expect to be «made whole», as investment banking jargon goes, by Pictet, which is set up as a collective of paid-in partner-owners.
Pay has become a hot-button issue in Switzerland in recent years, leading to a successful referendum five years ago to curb executive pay at public firms. At privately-held Pictet, the vote changes nothing: the partners view salaries, bonuses, personal loans governing buy-ins, and sendoffs (if they even exist) as deeply personal, and inquiries into the matter as distasteful.
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