Deutsche Bank staff to win 30% pay rises

Deutsche Bank is preparing to hand out pay rises of up to 30% after taking a hit from the UK bonus tax. The German bank, which employs 8,000 people in the City, revealed that the UK exchequer would receive a boost of €225m (£200m) from the bank to pay the cost of the 50% bonus tax. The bank has decided not to force its London-based staff to shoulder the burden of the bonus tax – as Credit Suisse has done – but is spreading the cost across its global bonus pool. When the Treasury announced the tax on bonuses over £25,000 last year, Alistair Darling forecast it would raise £550m. That is now likely to be surpassed, although Deutsche is the first bank to put a specific figure on its tax bill. Deutsche's chief executive, Josef Ackermann, also admitted that bankers had met behind the scenes at the world economic forum in Davos to try to head off government intervention on bonuses, but revealed little detail of the conclusions of the talks. Deutsche paid out €11.3bn to staff last year, 18% more than in 2008, but relative to the amount of revenue generated the cost of paying staff fell to a ratio of 37% from levels above 40% more usually.