Absa's Ramos to forego bonus

Absa CEO Maria Ramos has decided to forego her bonus because the bank published "disappointing" results yesterday.

The group announced a 9% decline in its headline earnings to R8.8-billion (from R9.7-billion in 2011), largely due to higher credit impairments in retail mortgages and commercial property finance.

Impairment losses took an R8-billion bite out of the company's profits, which rose 63% compared to a year earlier.

Absa's profit attributable to ordinary shareholders dipped 13% to about R8.4-billion.

Group financial director David Hodnett said the impairments on non-performing loans were significantly higher than expected.

Ramos was not the only one to get a haircut. Absa paid out 23% less in bonuses last year. And its staff costs declined by 4% over the year.

Barclays, which has a controlling stake in Absa, announced yesterday that it would shed as many as 3700 jobs as it cuts costs. It cut bonuses last year, giving its employees 14% less, Reuters reported.

Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins said it "need[s] to give our investors a bigger share of the income we generate".

Barclays increased its dividend to 6.5p share from 6p a year ago.

Absa kept its dividend at record levels, according to Ramos. It declared a final dividend of 684c a share.

The bank had 14.1million bulk customers and, at 32%, had the biggest market share among South Africa's retail banks, according to Ramos.