Bonus och ägarskap i svenska storbanker

Abstract

In this master thesis we are trying to investigate whether the heads of the four major Swedish banks are receiving compensation because of their own performance. We have investigated a number of parameters in the reporting and compensation description of Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank and compared it to macro data.

We have used publicly available information from the banks as well as macro data from 1998 to 2009.

We have come to the conclusion that the revenue and profits of the banks are heavily influenced by external factors and that there does not appear to be a clear link between a CEOs actions, the reported results for the bank, the shareholder gains and the compensation for the CEO. It appears as if the bonus payments to a CEO may depend more on parameters beyond the CEOs own control than the performance of the CEO.