Bankers to get average 2.2 month's salary as bonus

For the part of the nation's financial sector, the year-end bonuses appear promising this year, in accordance with the industry's up-turning profitability.

According to a survey by 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行), an average 2.2 months of salary will be given out to employees at financial institutions this year -- a rise on last year's average 1.9 months -- as year-end bonuses.

While many companies will wait to finalize the amount of the bonus in January when the Lunar New Year draws closer, employees have even higher expectations.

The Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託銀行), which has exceeded its profit target this year, may give out bonuses of more than last year's high of 10 months salary to some employees with the best performance, said a bank clerk who preferred not to be named. Employees at Chinatrust are promised a minimum of two months of salary as year-end bonuses, he added.

Bound by government regulations, newly established financial holding companies are restricted from giving out a year-end bonus of more than 4.6 months salary.

But Corinna Fu (傅虹), vice president of Mega Financial Holding Co's (兆豐金控) management department, said the company's seven subsidiaries may not have to follow the rules.

"There's a likelihood that these seven subsidiaries may give out a maximum of over 4.6 months of salary as a year-end bonus," Fu said.

SinoPac Holdings Co (建華金控), which on average gave away over 2-months of salary as year-end bonuses last year, may continue to see a rewarding year ahead, its spokesman Kevin Peng (彭康雄) said last week.

Some bank employees, however, may not get a minimum of two months salary as year-end bonuses.

Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), for instance, still faces a number of challenges such as bad-loan write-offs, which may curtail its year-end earnings, Executive Vice President Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭南) said.

"We are not so sure whether the company will keep up with last year's benchmark since we haven't successfully lowered our bad-loan ratio to below 3 percent," Hsieh said.