NEW YORK – UBS Group has stepped up an effort to recoup hundreds of millions in cash bonuses that Credit Suisse paid to retain dealmakers before the lender’s collapse.

UBS has contacted hundreds of bankers and offered some multi-year payment plans amid efforts to claw back a chunk of the 1.2 billion Swiss francs (S$1.8 billion) in restricted cash bonuses, known internally as upfront cash awards, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by Bloomberg News.

The amount that UBS is seeking to recover is less than 651 million Swiss francs, said one of the people.

The bank’s outside law firms are contacting staff who voluntarily left the firm and threatening legal action if the required amounts are not delivered, the documents show. A spokeswoman for UBS declined to comment.

While going after contingent awards when an employee leaves – a measure known as a clawback – is common among the largest banks, the scale and the structure of Credit Suisse’s situation stand out.

The bank awarded cash bonuses with strings attached to thousands of managing directors and directors in early 2022 and 2023 in an effort to cushion the blow of a shrinking bonus pool. Then the bank saw a flood of departures.

Deferred awards are typically given in restricted shares that the bank can just cancel.

But to retain talent amid multiple restructuring moves and a slumping stock price, Credit Suisse handed out cash with a clause requiring employees to repay some of the bonus if they left the firm within three years.

The Swiss bank stumbled through several money-losing quarters before collapsing and being bought by its Zurich rival earlier in 2023.

For many bankers who defect to rivals, hiring firms provide a signing bonus that covers rewards that are lost or must be repaid.

But such deals are not universal, particularly if bankers move to a new industry. More than 15 per cent of Credit Suisse’s staff voluntarily left the bank in 2022.

UBS scooped up its rival for, by one measure, five cents on the dollar, leading to an unprecedented US$29 billion (S$38.6 billion) quarterly pre-tax profit.

The firm’s shares are up almost 50 per cent since it struck the deal.

Still, the bank has warned that the integration will be long and complex, and has flagged several billion dollars in costs to resolve ongoing Credit Suisse legal liabilities. BLOOMBERG