The industry may be ready for change. Barclays’ investment bankers have to contend with a situation where concern about Brexit and mass sackings at Deutsche Bank pare hopes to get better jobs at rivals. Also, the level of profitability in European investment banking hasn’t really justified huge bonuses as of recently.

Across Europe, almost every big bank is struggling to boost profit. And as long as the growth strategies fail to generate more business, costs will remain under pressure – with jobs and salaries a main area of focus.

Tentative Steps

At Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, the management appeared to make first steps in that direction at the beginning of this year when they capped extra pay to its investment bankers and in global wealth management.

If major shareholders decide to focus more heavily on the link between performance and salaries, the banks will soon have to react. At Barclays, the questions about the expensive investment banking business is being pursued by activist investor Ed Bramson. And shareholders of Deutsche Bank obviously also have questioned the level of pay for executives.

Both Credit Suisse and UBS have been able to convince the majority of their shareholders to support the compensation packages, despite some protests from individual groups of investors.