Bawag Bankers Top Austria Pay Ranking Despite Waiving Bonuses

Waiving bonuses doesn’t appear to have hurt Bawag Group AG top executives’ pay checks — at least compared with other Austrian companies.

A ranking of the country’s 10 highest-paid corporate executives saw half the slots go to the Vienna-based lender’s five board members, who earned a combined 19.4 million euros ($23.4 million) in 2020. Bawag Chief Executive Officer Anas Abuzaakouk took top spot in the national rankings with a salary exceeding 5 million euros, according to data compiled by Trend magazine.

Austria’s third-largest lender by market value was among the most profitable with a return on equity of more than 8.5% in 2020. Bawag has been looking to grow with acquisitions after its shares were listed in 2017 by private equity investor Cerberus. It bought Depfa Bank in Germany last year for more than 320 million euros.

Austrian executives’ pay still pales in comparison with its peers in western Europe. Nine Austrian bankers earned more than 1 million euros in 2018 compared with 82 in Germany and 1,060 in the U.K., according to data from the European Banking Authority.

— With assistance by Boris Groendahl, and Zoe Schneeweiss