UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank with around 60,000 employees worldwide, began last year giving staff a grade of one to five on their behavior, the criteria for which include integrity and collaboration. Behavior counts for around 30 percent of employees' performance reviews, which also reflect the overall quality of work and form the basis of bonus rewards. For the previous two years, behavior was a factor in the reviews but employees were not given a separate score for it. UBS has forked out billions of dollars in recent years to settle a string of scandals, including manipulation of benchmark interest and foreign exchange rates as well as aiding tax evasion by U.S. clients. The bank also suffered a more-than $2 billion hit from a rogue trading scandal in 2011. The new review format was first reported by Swiss finance blog Inside Paradeplatz. Reuters reported last week that UBS was looking at the relative pay of men and women in its investment banking arm as part of its compensation review, and was taking steps to close any significant gaps. UBS is also freezing pay across its investment bank, pending a review in the second quarter of the year, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin in Zurich and Anjuli Davies in London; editing by Adrian Croft)
Reuters have begun scoring employees specifically on their behaviour, which could impact their bonuses, in hopes it will improve banking behaviour. The bank began last year giving staff a grade of two , the criteria for which included integrity and collaboration, with behaviour now counting to around 30 percent of the employees' performance reviews. Over last year UBS had paid out billions of dollars to settle a string of scandals, including manipulation of of forex rates as well as aiding tax evasion by U.S. clients.