UBS markets bonuses were fine, especially on the desk that lost 9 people
Yesterday was UBS bonus day. The early verdict seems to be that things weren't too bad, especially in the Swiss bank's markets business, where revenues rose 24% year-on-year. However, things seem to have been best of all on one London trading desk, which lost many of its people in 2025.
Insiders point to intense churn on Swiss bank's London rates desk. In the past year, at least nine people have left. Bonuses allocated to remaining staff on the desk are thought to be good.
We reported some, but not all, of the exits earlier this week. We now know that they also included Kyriakos Manolis, a senior USD swaps trader, who joined from Citadel in June and is said to have left UBS again in December. The FCA Register says he is still technically employed by the bank.
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
The other exits are: Dipo Abiola, who left in December to become head of UK insurance sales at UBS; Samuel Seyoum, a rates sales associate who left for Santander in June; Ali Sanai, a rates sales MD who left for Citi in March; Mark Samarasinghe, a senior rates trader who left for Deutsche Bank in September; George Dramitinos, a London-based rates trader, who left late last year; Jason Colloupas, who was trading Australian rates in London; and Yilin Liu, another junior, who's going to Deutsche Bank.
Insiders say that many of those who left were hired by Mark Tinworth, who joined RBC last July. He was replaced by Shane O’Cuinn, who spent a long time running Credit Suisse's non-core unit. O'Cuinn recently hired Kilian Frensch from Nomura.
Away from the rates desk, UBS insiders say M&A bonuses were fine, but for the juniors who are complaining. Across markets as a whole it's thought there may have been a double digit rise.
UBS didn't respond to a request to comment. Like other banks, it pays for performance.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.
